


we may not be infinite (but it seems we are inevitable)

by maybethiscouldbetheline



Category: Wizards of Waverly Place
Genre: Also I take canon and maybe rip it to shreds??, F/M, I am so so bad at this "tag" thing, I'm never sure exactly what qualifies a character for that tag??, It's hard to explain, Sibling Incest, a little bit, because it was honestly a Disney Channel original movie masterpiece, but not really, gratuitous use of references to the movie, implied soulmates, it's been like ten years and I'm still not over it, please don't make do more to them, possibly BAMF Justin, technically canon compliant until s03 ep21 Deliquent Justin, the summary is probably way more dramatic then the actual story, this literally took me two decades to write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 35,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22524361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybethiscouldbetheline/pseuds/maybethiscouldbetheline
Summary: "The revolution starts because Justin doesn't come to dinner."~Justin disappears, leaving behind more than just some unanswered questions. What follows is maybe one of the most important adventures of Alex's life. It turns out the Russo's have a secret so deeply buried eventheydon't know about it. Apparently, someone has been messing the with balance of things and Alex is about to learn that everything is not what it seems...
Relationships: Alex Russo/Justin Russo, Zeke Beakerman/Harper Finkle
Comments: 23
Kudos: 98





	1. How It Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes titles come easily to me. Sometimes I sit and stare at the blank title block for an hour, watching as it mocks me as I search fruitlessly for a phrase that feels right. Guess which one this is. Title is almost definitely subject to change as soon as inspiration _finally_ decides to join me.
> 
> So, um, I recognize that this show has been over for what? like eight years? But here I am, having just rewatched it on Disney+. And I got hit with this. This thing that was supposed to be a short little one shot that spiraled horribly out of my control and so you get this.
> 
> I've always kind of had a lot of questions about the logic and laws of this show's universe. I literally sent a rambling text to my friend with these questions that I have always had. Like the whole power transfer system has always confused me. If there can only be one wizard in the family how does Kelbo still have his powers? Once Alex, Justin, and Max have their competition will he lose his powers or does, like, every generation get to have their own wizard? What would have happened if they had had cousins? Why can't they all just opt to keep their smaller bits of magic? Why is it so easy for Professor Crumbs to just give his magic to Justin? Like if it's that easy then siblings should just be able to transfer the magic back and forth (like "okay, you can have the magic for Christmas, but I want it for Halloween and the 4th of July)? Why do you have to give up your magic if you marry a mortal? If you had magic and then lost it to your sibling why can't you keep dating other magical people? Like we've seen that wizards, vampires, werewolves, and ghosts all live successfully in the mortal realm so... huh???
> 
> I just...I have so many questions. Too many for what is a kids show and probably isn't meant to be thought about too deeply but, well here we are.
> 
> Also, this kind of turned into my own, kind of long (sorry about that) love letter to Justin Russo. He was always my favorite. And I know that Alex was always meant to be the main character and that she was always going to win the wizard competition, but it bugs me how Justin and Max got treated in the later seasons. Especially Justin. Like after the movie he just...got the short end of the stick in a big way. I mean, I understand that they had to have Alex start to grow and mature and figure out her problems for herself, because there's no one way you could convince anyone that pre-movie Alex was going to be a good candidate for Family Wizard, but still. I feel like they focused on all this growth for her character, but all of it seemed to happen at the expense of Justin's character and I always kind of hated that a little bit.
> 
> Anyways, enough rambling from me! Enjoy the story! I've read over this several times, but no one else has looked at it, so please excuse any typos.

The revolution starts because Justin doesn’t come to dinner.

~

Life in the Russo household is chaotic even on the best days, but despite having three teenagers, a business to run, magic lessons to conduct, and magic mishaps to fix, they’ve always managed to come together for dinner most days of the week. So, when their mom calls for all of them one evening and everyone else shows but Justin, it’s weird.

It’s not like Justin is usually the first one to the table or anything (very few things can stand between Max and whatever food he’s headed towards) and it isn’t even that uncommon for Justin to get so wrapped up in studying, or reading, or building some kind of robot thingy that he has to be called again.

But when their mom has called for him three more times, each time a little louder and a little more exasperated sounding then the last, it’s odd. Finally, Theresa must give up on being able to get her son’s attention through yelling (they probably shouldn’t be surprised that he’s potentially tuning it out –yelling happens a lot in their house) and turns to Alex, who’s already started digging into her mashed potatoes.

“Alex, go get your brother for dinner.”

Alex groans, but she’s already on thin ice for using magic to get herself and Harper to the crazy ten minute sale and back during school hours yesterday (she suspects that she’s only avoiding outright punishment because it was during lunch at Harper’s insistence), so instead of fighting it like she might normally, she gets up and makes her way to her brother’s room.

“Alright dorkus,” she says in lieu of a greeting as she pushes open his door, “time to put down whatever nerdy thing you’re doing and...” She trails off as she realizes that Justin’s room, tidy and organized as always, is completely empty.

Then her eyes land on her brother’s bed, her stomach drops to her feet, and she’s scrambling for the kitchen, panic clawing its way up throat as she screams for their dad before she can fully process what she’s doing. She literally runs into him in the hallway in her haste, hits him so hard she bounces backwards and he has to grab her upper arms to steady her. Her mother and Max are right behind him and they both give her identical looks of confusion.

“Alex! What’s wrong?” He reads the panic on her face and his eyebrows scrunch together in concern in response. “Honey, what is it?”

“Dad!” Terror has joined the panic now and apparently her stomach got off the floor when she bolted because they both sit heavy as the Stone of Dreams in there. “Dad! It’s Justin!”

Before he can question her further (because she doesn’t have words for this, she just _doesn’t_ ), she frees herself from his grasp and grabs his hand to pull him back to her brother’s _almost_ empty room and everyone follows her. They’re all tense now, confused and concerned by the wild panic in Alex’s eyes and the way she sounds like she’s trying her best not to cry.

Her mother gasps as soon as they enter the room and Max, who Alex has only ever seen be genuinely serious once (just once, under the heat of a tropical sun as he struggled to remember who he was), takes in the sight and can only come to stand next to Alex, grabbing her hand in silent support and looking the same strange combination of dread, worry, and panic that Alex currently feels.

“Oh.” Is all her dad can seem to say as he takes in the sight, sounding more serious than Alex can ever remember. “This is really not good.”

“Daddy...” Alex whispers, her emotions clogging her throat and making it hard to talk, “What happened? Who could do this? _Why_ would they do this?”

Her father turns away from the bed to face her and the look on his face terrifies her even more for a reason she can’t quite pinpoint. “I don’t know _why_ this happened, honey.” He admits honestly. “But as for who... only Justin could do this.”

And there her stomach goes, back to the floor again while what little of dinner she’d eaten threatens to come back up. Because that means that...that Justin did this to himself and then disappeared without so much as a good-bye. And it doesn’t make sense. Because for as long as she’s known they had magic, she’s known that there was only one thing that Justin had really wanted.

And he’s apparently walked away and left it behind.

Because there, on Justin’s perfectly made bed, sits his wand, lying innocently between two folded pieces of paper, Alex and Max’s name written on them in Justin’s familiar handwriting. And behind those papers, floating in two clear tube canisters –clearly split in half—

Justin’s magic.

~

“How is this even possible?” Their mother asks after several minutes of heavy silence in which they all just stare at sight before them. “I mean, I know Professor Crumbs has taken Alex’s magic away before but...”

“Justin’s magic is split.” Max finishes, eyes still on their brother’s portion of their powers, hand still gripping Alex’s tightly.

“Professor Crumbs has the ability to remove a wizard-in-training’s power if necessary,” Their dad agrees, “and there are one or two ways to take a full wizard’s powers, but they’re complicated and not even possible to accomplish in the mortal realm.” He shakes his head. “But none of that matters because the only person who could have split Justin’s powers like that _is_ Justin. It’s an old spell and a difficult one. Honestly, I’m surprised Justin was even able to execute it successfully considering the power is split between the three of you.”

A strange look crosses over her father’s face as he finishes talking and he gets closer to the magic, inspecting it with more attention than Alex thinks it deserves considering its owner is just... _gone_ , but before Alex has the chance to ask him about it, Max squeezes her hand to get her attention.

“Should-should we look at the notes he left for us?” He asks tentatively, and it’s obvious to Alex that he’s torn between the same curiosity and dread about what those two pieces of paper could hold that Alex is.

Steeling herself, she takes a deep breath and nods. “Yeah.” She squeezes Max’s hand back. “Yeah, that’d be a good idea.”

They step forward, only letting go of each other’s hands once they go to reach for their respective notes. Max doesn’t even hesitate to open his, for which Alex is grateful. She’s not quite ready to see what hers says just yet. His eyes scan the letter and Alex tries to identify the emotions that flicker across his face. They pass by so quickly that she isn’t able to put a name to any of them except for the sadness that settles across his features last.

“What’s it say, _mijo_?” They’re mother asks after several seconds of silence in which it becomes obvious that Max isn’t going to speak without some prompting.

“Uh,” Max startles, just a little, like he’d maybe forgotten they were all in the room with him for a second. “It, uh, it says ‘This half belongs to you. Remember to try your best. And never stop dreaming’.” He looks up at them, the same helplessness that Alex feels swirling around her head reflected in his eyes. “That’s it. There’s nothing else.”

“Alex?” Her mom turns to face her and she’s starting to look desperate (or probably has been looking that desperate, but Alex has been too shocked to notice). “What about yours?”

With shaking hands, Alex unfolds her note and begins to read it. “This half belongs to you. Remember to try your best. You-“ Something in Alex cracks and she swallows the next sentence down, not sure she’s ready to share those words with anyone. The words begin to blur together through her tears. “And you are so much more than you think you are.” She shakes her head. “I’m _not_ taking Justin’s part of the magic.”

Max nods. “Me neither. We’ll just wait and give it back to him when he comes back.”

“Wait, that’s it?” Her mother is starting to sound frantic now. “That _can’t_ be it! Jerry!” She rounds on her husband who is still studying the two containers curiously, “What are we going to do?”

It takes her dad a few seconds to answer, but when he does, he says the last thing Alex is expecting to hear. “This can’t be Justin’s magic.”

Alex and Max exchange confused looks and Alex turns to her mom just in time to catch her reply. “What do you mean that can’t be Justin’s magic?”

“Look at it!” Her dad gestures towards the magic. “Alex, remember the spell I taught you to bring your magic to the surface?”

Alex nods, cupping her hands and pulling up the small golden sphere of her magic. Max gasps in surprise beside her.

“How did you do that?”

“It’s an easy spell.” Her dad answers for her. “I haven’t had a chance to teach it to you yet, Max. But cup your hands and focus on your magic.” Max does as instructed, eyes slipping shut in concentration. “Okay, now concentrate on pulling your magic to the surface, just imagine it looking like your sister’s.”

A few seconds later Max’s face is bathed in the golden glow of his own magical sphere. “Whoa...”

Jerry nods. “But look at your magic and then look at Justin’s.”

Alex does, not quite sure what their father is getting at. “They look the same to me.”

“Exactly.” He shakes his head. “Technically, the family powers have been split between the three of you, so when you manifest your magic physically, they should all be the same size and they should each be smaller than how it would look for a full powered wizard. But if Justin’s power started out the same size as yours and he _halved_ it...”

The realization hits Alex like a lightning bolt and her hands shut in a knee jerk reaction to her surprise, her magic disappearing with it. “Then they should each be smaller!”

“And they’re not.” Jerry says, sounding grim. “What’s more, see how Justin’s magic is moving like’s trying to revolve in a circle, but like it’s hitting a wall and bouncing back?”

Alex focuses back in on her brother’s magic and sees immediately what her father is talking about. Where the golden tendrils of magic flow freely around the core of Max’s power, still resting in his hands, the ones in Justin’s magic –both halves- get about halfway around the circle in whatever direction they’re traveling before suddenly turning back to go the direction they came.

“What is that?” Max asks, closing his own hands and dispelling his magic so he can lean closer to look at Justin’s. “Why’s it all messed up?”

“It’s a dampening spell.” Jerry explains. At everyone’s blank stares he elaborates. “It’s used on wizard children who are only children. Without siblings to split the magic with, a young wizard would simply inherit his family’s full powers once they came in. That can be dangerous, so the dampening spell is placed on the magic to keep it from working at full power until the wizard is ready. Think of it kind of like training wheels. Or like a more long term version of that hat you guys had to wear when your powers first came in. Except instead of blocking them completely for a few days while your body adjusts, it just weakens them a little for a few years until the young wizard is ready to handle full blown powers. It can sometimes be done on the eldest child if there’s a huge age gap between siblings, enough of one for a young wizard to still be an only child when their powers come in, but you and Justin aren't even two years apart, so we never even considered using a dampening spell on him.”

“But-“ Alex lets her eyes drift back to the magic on the bed. “But that’s definitely Justin’s magic, Daddy!”

Max nods next to her. “Alex is right, Dad. It feels just like him.”

Their father’s face grows conflicted at his children’s words. Alex knows he wants to believe them, knows from when he had his powers that every wizard’s magic has a distinct impression that it leaves on other wizards, a flavor that is uniquely their own. It’s easy enough to block out, it barely takes any concentration, but Alex, Max, Justin have been together for essentially their entire lives, it would be pretty impossible for them not to realize how Justin’s magic felt.

But...

“What are you guys saying?”

“Mom,” Alex turns to answer her mother’s question, trying to convey how serious she is with her voice, her face, her body language, because this is the exact opposite of any kind of joke or prank and Alex can feel her world tilting from underneath her even as she speaks, that pit in her stomach shuddering as if it already knows what’s about to happen. “That is without a doubt, definitely Justin’s magic. I swear it.”

“If that’s true...” Her father shakes his head again and if Alex thought he sounded grave before, it’s nothing compared to how he sounds now. “The only way for that to be Justin’s magic _and_ for his magic to physically manifest itself as that size even though it’s split in half, _and_ that dampening spell...”

He trails off, muttering to himself and Alex reaches out to place a hand on his arm, afraid she already knows what conclusion he’s drawn. “Daddy?”

He looks back them, his expression helpless and lost like Alex has never seen it.

“Justin would have to not be a Russo.”

~

“What do you mean Justin’s not a Russo?” Theresa is all but screeching at this point as she paces.

They moved the discussion into the living room, the twin jars containing Justin’s magic sitting peacefully on the coffee table. Her mother had held it together until Alex and Max, each carrying a jar, had set them down carefully. Then she’d exploded.

“That is _not_ possible!” Her hands are flailing and she keeps switching between yelling frantically in English and muttering frantically in Spanish. “I remember when he was _born_. I remember giving birth to him!”

“I know, honey.” Alex watches her dad as he approaches her mom, voice soothing and obviously trying to calm her down. “I remember that day too.”

“Then how can we remember the birth of our son if he’s _not_ our son?”

“I’m not sure,” her dad admits and that chills Alex to her core, because the only other time her dad didn’t have the answer was when he technically wasn’t her dad and Alex never wants to have to go through something like that again. “All I know is that magic, on its own, can’t lie.” His face darkens. “But wizards can.”

“I'm-I’m sorry,” Her mother switches from frantic to disbelief so fast it makes Alex’s head spin, “Are you saying that someone cast a spell on all of us to make us think that Justin was our son?”

Jerry shrugs. “I’m just saying it’s possible. And the spell was probably only cast on us, maybe Alex, depending on how old she was. Magic like that is complicated, everyone’s fake memories would have to match up and you’d have to account for almost every second of every day. The younger he is, the less they have to create and the less people they’d have to create it for.”

“Wait,” Alex shakes her head, “wouldn’t you have noticed that Justin’s magic was weird when you taught him how to manifest it? That dampening spell thingy is kind of hard to miss if you know what it looks like.”

Jerry shakes his head. “I never actually taught the spell to Justin. He read about it for himself and tried it on his own. When I went to teach it to him he told me he’d already mastered it and well,” he shrugs, “he’s always been good with his magic and it’s not a complicated spell so I didn’t question it.”

Alex slumps down even further into the couch, curling into herself. She hates this. She just wants Justin to come back and she doesn’t even care if he walks in and laughs because that would mean this nightmare is just his weird idea of a prank or something. She won’t even get back at him for it (probably). Not as long as he takes his magic back and gives her a hug and promises to never leave her ( _again_ ).

“Look, the best course of action is for us to find Justin.” It’s obvious their father thinks giving them a goal will help. “He’ll at least have some answers. Even if he doesn’t have them all.”

Well, it’s not like he’s wrong.

~

They’ve moved to the lair, Alex and Max both clutching one of the jars of their (maybe?) brother’s magic. Alex can’t stand to let the jar out of her sight. It’s her strongest connection to Justin and she can’t shake the horrifying feeling that if she looks away for too long it’ll vanish right along with him. She doesn’t know for sure, but she suspects that Max feels similarly.

“Okay,” Their dad pulls out an older looking book from one of the shelves and flips through it as he makes his way back to where everyone else is seated around the small table. He finds what he’s looking for and places the book on the table so Max and Alex can read from it. “This is a tracer spell.”

He’s talking to them like this tracer spell is the most important piece of magic they’ll ever do. Not that Alex needs the reminder, right now she isn’t sure there’s anything she could possibly want as much as she wants to find Justin and get this whole mess sorted out. Even if he’s _not_ their brother, as long as he’s there it’ll be okay. She can feel it.

“You’ll have to work together. Concentrate on Justin and on finding him and just repeat this spell.” He points to a short spell about half way down the left page.

Alex looks at Max who nods. She takes his hand and together they lean over the book and start to recite the spell.

“ _Someone’s missing and that feels wrong_. _  
So show us exactly where Justin’s gone_.”

Alex focuses on every memory of her brother that she can: from Saturday mornings spent curled up in blanket forts and watching cartoons, to door slamming fights. She focus on how she felt every time she’s ever had to plead with anyone to get him back (a genie, the universe, whoever). And she especially focuses on the last memory she has of him, walking past his room to see him reading from one of the many magic books from the lair –not an unusual occurrence.

_“Study all you want, Justin. We both know I’m going to totally crush you in the competition.”_

She’d said it so casually, the way she’d said it a hundred times before. And he would always respond with a smirk and the promise that luck wasn’t always going to get her through everything.

Or, at least he had. Before the Caribbean.

Afterwards, he mostly still responded the same, but every once in a while he would switch up the pattern and when she snarked at him in her usual fashion he would just smile, like he had the last time she’d seen him.

_“I know.”_

He’s never been upset when he says it, in fact he always just sounds fiercely proud, and it hadn’t been any different during their last interaction. There’d be no sign that he was planning whatever exactly this was and Alex holds on to that, holds on to that memory of normal and right and _Justin_.

There’s silence in the lair as their voices fade, every member of the family holding their breath as they wait for the answer to the only question that really matters right now. Alex can feel her magic surge, coming to life in response to her spell and she can’t help the grin that slips across her face because that means the spell worked and any second now they’ll know exactly where Justin is and they can go get him and she can alternate between yelling at him and hugging him to her heart’s content and-

“I know you guys are probably looking for me.” Justin’s voice rings through the lair and Alex’s head whips around, trying to find any sign of him, but the room is just as Justin-free as it was when they entered. “But try and trust me when I say it’s for the best that you guys don’t find me. Just...know that I’m safe and that I love you guys.” There’s a beat of silence, but Alex can still sense Justin’s _whatever_ this is. “I’m sorry.” His voice finally says and then his voice disappears and so does what little of him Alex could sense.

She turns to face her father who is looking like he’s torn between being worried and impressed. “What happened? That didn’t tell us anything?”

Jerry shakes his head. “He must have blocked himself with magic before he gave it up. It’s the only reason the tracer spell would react like that.”

Helplessness like Alex has only felt once settles around her like an ill-fitting coat and her face crumples and she’s crying like she hasn’t cried since the last time she lost Justin. She’s crying harder actually, because at least then he was still standing in front of her, even if he was looking at her like she was a stranger.

“Oh honey!” Her mom’s arms are around her suddenly and Alex knows she must be just as paralyzed with grief as Alex feels, but of course she’s putting her own feelings aside to comfort Alex. And she knows it’s selfish but she’s so grateful that her mom is able to do that. That she’s here for all of this, because she knows she would not have been able to handle this alone.

She feels Max slide in close, wrapping his arms around her and their mom and soon enough her dad is kneeling in front of all three of them and if anyone else is actively crying, Alex can’t hear it over the sounds of her own sobs, but she can feel the weight of their combined grief and it just makes her cry harder.

Alex isn’t sure how long they stay like that, she just knows that it’s long enough for her to cry herself out and when she finally lifts her head from her mother’s shoulder everyone’s eyes are at least a little red and puffy. “I’m sorry.” She whispers sheepishly.

Her mom gives a watery chuckle. “Believe me Alex, the last thing you will ever need to apologize for is being upset about missing your brother.” She frowns thoughtfully. “Or whatever he technically is.”

“He’s family.” Jerry’s voice is firm, leaving no room for argument in his statement. Not that he would have gotten one. “Whatever else is going on, Justin will always be part of this family. And as family, I think we’re just going to have to trust him.”

“Jerry!”

Her father looks at all of them, eyes grave and expression serious. “I know, Theresa.” He shakes his head. “But I’m not sure what else we can do. Even if we report him as missing to the police he has to be gone at least 48 hours. He’s not a minor anymore. And if he used magic somehow, a transportation potion or something, he could be _anywhere_. I don’t agree that it was the best choice to leave, but this is Justin we’re talking about, he obviously must have thought it was the best option.”

“So what do we do now?” It’s Max who asks this question after several seconds of weighted silence, he’s back to gripping Alex’s hand and she’s glad she still has him to lean on at least.

Jerry shrugs and Alex wonders if it’s supposed to look casual but it mostly just looks heartbreakingly sad. “We trust that he’ll come back to us when he’s ready.”

~

Life can’t stop after Justin goes missing, no matter how much Alex would like it to. Her parents let both her and Max stay home from school the first few days, partially because Max is so distracted that his magic does what it wants in a way that it hasn’t since he got his powers under control when he was 13 and partially because they’re all trying to deal with the gaping Justin shaped hole in their lives _and_ come to terms with the knowledge that maybe he was never actually supposed to be there in the first place.

Alex initially turns to mortal ways of tracking her brother down. He’s human and doesn’t have his powers so he’s obviously going to need to eat and sleep and keep himself safe from the elements. There’s so few things missing from Justin’s room that he can’t have left with anything bigger than a backpack so Alex goes to the bank to try and put an alert out on his credit card, everyone still believes she’s his sister so it’s easy enough to do. But it turns out Justin withdrew whatever money he had in his account days before he even left so that’s a dead end.

With that discovery, Alex has to admit to herself that her father may be right and her only option may be to let Justin eventually find his way back to them. It kills them all to acknowledge it though. Without them ever having to say it, Alex knows they’d all been silently hoping that she’d find some way to track him down.

But everyone seems to slowly settle into this new existence, always keeping an ear out for any news they might find, but mostly going about their lives as normal as possible.

Alex hates it.

She hates her brother and her parents a little bit for being able to find a sense of normalcy without Justin and she hates herself a little bit for not being able to. But mostly she just hates Justin for leaving them ( _her_ ) in the first place. And she can almost make herself believe it, expect she spends every night in his room, wrapped up in his blankets and trying to convince herself that the fact that it smells like Justin –like books and that sandalwood scented soap he uses and the cinnamon tang of his magic- is enough.

It isn’t of course.

Alex had never realized how big a part of her life Justin really was until suddenly he wasn’t there anymore. They’d come to an unspoken agreement after their adventure in the Caribbean, because they’d both had problems being out of each other’s sight the first few days after everything had been resolved and Alex had never been so grateful to have to be sharing a room with him and Max. Just being able to hear them breathe helped her sleep at night. After they’d gotten back to New York, there had just been a silent understanding that obviously they’d have to go about their days like normal, but Justin had always been there in the background, a heartbeat away if Alex ever needed him.

She hasn’t even had the heart to use much magic since he left, too worried she’ll find herself in over her head (as she so often does) and Justin won’t be there to bail her out. Her magic feels dull too, moving sluggishly through her veins, like it misses Justin too, which is ridiculously because apparently she and Justin don’t even share the same magic. 

Harper tries her best to be understanding. She’s, unsurprisingly, devastated that Justin is gone, but she’s got Zeke now and she can tell that whatever she felt for Justin pales in comparison to how listless Justin’s disappearance has made Alex and she’s done her best to just be supportive and hasn’t lamented over her loss even once (well, maybe once, when Alex first told her, but she’d barely finished her first dramatic wail before realizing that Alex was in way more pain and had immediately slipped into the supportive best friend role she’s been in ever since). Her parents and Max try to understand too, and they’re certainly closer to understanding than Harper is, but even they don’t seem to get what’s happening.

Honestly, even Alex isn’t sure what’s happening. Max should theoretically be in the same position as Alex, but he’s doing okay, obviously missing Justin, but not reduced to wearing his sweaters around the house and sniffling into his pillow every night. Keeping the note he’d written for her with her at all times, the paper wrinkled from Alex handling it so much and reading and rereading it several times a day.

_This half is for you. Remember to try your best._  
_You’re everything I ever wanted to be.  
_ _And you are so much more than you think you are._

Alex isn’t even sure what’s more upsetting: the fact that he’s not actually her brother or the fact that he had once looked at her with a horrifyingly blank stare and still promised not to leave her and yet –with memories fully intact- he'd walked away without any kind of good-bye at all.

Except that’s a lie and Alex has very little energy for anything anymore, especially lying to herself.

Brother or not, Alex just needs him _here_.

~

Alex graduates eight months after Justin vanishes. She’s nowhere near class valedictorian but she graduates right on schedule with higher grades then anyone was expecting and the offer of partial scholarship to the Fashion Institute of Technology, which is an accomplishment that Alex is fiercely proud of.

Her parents close down the restaurant and the four of them and Harper and Zeke (who are still going strong and Alex honestly can’t believe that it took her so long to realize how weirdly perfect they are for each other) have a small celebration. Her mom bakes her and Harper both cakes and Max secretly uses magic to make sure his plate of cake never empties and their dad tries to chastise him when he catches on, but also quietly encourages Max to do the same to _his_ plate of cake and it’s the first time that Alex has felt even remotely like her old self in months.

Zeke tells Harper he loves her and her parents give her a brand new (and expensive) set of art supplies and their promise to pay whatever her scholarship doesn’t cover and it would be perfect except for the missing snarky “I can’t believe you actually managed to graduate” and the “I’m so proud of you” whispered during a too tight hug.

The party ends when Zeke and Harper leave to celebrate on their own over dinner and Max’s sugar crash from his never ending plate of cake hits him as hard as it used to when he was little and trying to eat as much Halloween candy as he could before bedtime (to be fair, their father was notorious for going through their candy stashes and taking the best ones once they all went to bed). She’s still kind of keyed up from the excitement of the day so after promising to be safe, she slips out of the substation to enjoy the cool evening breeze with a walk.

She’s halfway down Waverly Place when she sees him.

It might not be Justin. If it isn’t, it certainly won’t be the first time that Alex has given chase to a look-a-like only to be disappointed when someone who isn’t him turns around –one time it was girl with really short dark hair and that one had really thrown Alex for a loop. But something in Alex’s gut is sure that it’s him, in a way that she’s never been before. She’s so sure, in fact, that she’s got her wand out before she can fully think about it.

“ _Gilesjay timesday!_ ” Everything –including the maybe possibly Justin- freezes.

Alex immediately begins hopping over to him, using the strangers to keep her balance. She can’t risk accidentally unfreezing time and letting him slip away. She’s a little breathless by the time she reaches him. He’s not that far ahead but the street is crowded and she’s only got the one leg. But none of that matters because she hops around so she can see his face and doesn’t know whether she wants to laugh or cry.

It’s definitely Justin. He looks tired, like he isn’t getting his usual self-prescribed eight hours of sleep. His hair is a little longer and no longer styled like she remembers it and he’s got a five o’clock shadow across his jawline that she doesn’t remember ever seeing, but it’s definitely him. She laughs, maybe a touch more on the side on manically than happily, and throws her arms around his neck, letting her foot drop to the ground so time can start again.

He staggers a bit under the obviously unexpected weight, but they remain standing, which is just as well. This is definitely has the potential to become a scene and they don’t need to make it worse by starting it sprawled on the ground.

“Justin!”

She’s got her head in the crook of neck, breathing in deeply (he doesn’t smell like sandalwood anymore, but he still somehow smells like books and cinnamon and it’s the best thing Alex has ever smelt in her life) so she has no idea what expression he has on his face, but his arms come up to wrap around her tightly, almost like he can’t help himself, and Alex feels like she can breathe easily for the first time in eight months.

She pulls back a few seconds later, keeping one of her hands tangled in his shirt so that he can’t try and walk away as she studies him. His expression is something torn between guilt and worry, but his arms are still wrapped loosely around her waist so she thinks he’s probably not going to try and escape right this second.

“Where have you been?” She almost screams, remembering at the last second that they’re still in public. That knowledge doesn’t stop her from raising her free hand and punching him not-so-gently in the shoulder.

He flinches as she makes contact, but he gives her a sad smile. “Hey.”

“Seriously, Justin,” Alex puts one hand on her hip, taking all the anger she’s been harboring for her brother the past several months and turning it into a glare that would send anyone other than Justin running, “where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you!”

He raises a hand to his face, rubbing tiredly at his eyes and Alex is immediately aware of the slump in his shoulders and the defeated posture she never really associated with him before this moment. “I knew I shouldn’t have come back.” He says this mostly to himself, but he says it loud enough that Alex can hear him and he knows it because when he looks back up at her, his smile is tired but so proud that her chest aches. “But I couldn’t miss your graduation. I always knew you could do it.”

No one has ever had as much faith in her as Justin has and he’s obviously dodging her question, but it doesn’t matter right now because her throat is clogging up and she refuses to cry in the middle of a very public New York street, but she’s so damn happy because Justin is real and he’s _here_ and eventually she’ll get him to answer her questions (there’s very little she can’t get him do when it comes down to it), but for now it’s enough that she can feel him.

“You have to come back to the apartment!” She says suddenly and she only feels a little guilty that she’s just remembering that her family all lost Justin too.

“Alex...” He groans softly and Alex pointedly ignores the way her magic surges just from hearing him say her name for the first time in months. “I can’t.”

“You have to!” She’s dangerously close to whining, but she doesn’t care. “Mom and Dad have been worried sick and Max misses you like crazy and nothing is the same without you and Justin... _please_.”

He steps back from her, placing both hands on her shoulder, and fixes her with a serious stare. One that’s sad, but determined, and her breath catches in her throat because the last time he looked at her like that he was apologizing for having to go all out against her for their magic. “Alex, I left for a reason.”

Panic starts clawing in Alex’s stomach because she just got Justin back and he’s going to leave her again without any explanation or apologies or more than ten words and she can’t lose him again. She can’t, she can’t, she _can’t_.

He doesn’t even know about his magic, yet.

“You’re magic!” She blurts out, almost involuntarily. His brows scrunch together like they always do when he’s confused. “You have to at least come home to get your magic!”

“My magic?” He shakes his head before smiling sadly again. “Alex, I left my magic for you and Max to take. _You_ should be using it.”

It’s Alex’s turn to shake her head. “Max and I _couldn’t_ take your magic.” He opens his mouth, no doubt to ask questions, but this is not the place to be having that particular discussion, so she keeps talking before he has the chance to get the words out. “Just...just come home for tonight. Dad can explain everything and we can...we can just celebrate my graduation! We don’t even have to talk about anything that you don’t want to. Just... _please_!”

There’s silence for a minute and then his eyes go soft, the way they always do when Alex really needs him and relief floods through her system before he even answers, because she knows that look and she knows she’s got him.

“Okay,” He agrees. “Just for the night though.”

Alex nods, a smile blooming across her face. She grabs his hand, holding it like he used to hold hers when they were younger and her dad would give them some money to go walk to the park and get ice cream from the truck that was always there.

Just for tonight works, at least for now. That just gives her that much more time to figure out how to convince him to stay for good.

~

Theresa actually shrieks when they walk into the apartment, dropping the plate she’d been in the middle of washing, and the commotion wakes Max from where he’d been dozing on the couch. Max blinks sleepily for a few seconds (mumbling something about unicorns and pineapples) before reality catches up with him and he realizes who exactly is standing there, looking sheepish, at the front door.

“Justin!” Max jumps up from the couch, wrapping Justin in a tight hug. “You’re back! And what’s on your face?”

Max had a growth spurt in the time that Justin has been gone and Alex can see the surprise on Justin’s face as he takes in the fact that his baby brother is now almost as tall as him. He gives Max the same sad smile he gave Alex in the street, but at least it reaches his eyes so she knows he’s genuine when he hugs Max quickly before answering. “Hey Max. And it’s a beard. Or, well, the beginnings of one. I haven’t had a chance to shave yet.”

Alex almost laughs at the incredulous look on Max’s face. “You have beard now?”

“Sometimes.” Justin chuckles, “when I don’t get a chance to shave.”

“ _Mijo!_ ” Theresa must have gotten over her shock because suddenly she’s there, all but knocking Max out of the way in her rush to get to Justin. “Oh, _mijo_!” Alex worries briefly that her mother is going to start bombarding Justin with questions before she has the chance to explain the “not talking about it” deal she’d had to make, but Theresa’s motherly instincts go into over drive and as soon as she’s done hugging Justin to her she’s pulling back and giving him the same critical look all of them had received if they’d been gone from home for more than a few days. “Whoever is feeding you isn’t doing a very good job. You’re way too thin. I’ll make you something good to eat! What do you want?”

The relief radiating off of Justin at not being asked too many questions is palpable and Alex gets the sense that her mother had realized that some questions were off limits right from the start. “Actually, I would really love some of your _paella_.” He gives her a shy smile. “If you have the stuff for it.”

From the look on her mom’s face, it’s obvious that even if they didn’t have a single ingredient in the house she’d find a way to make it, probably by letting Max zap the necessary ingredients to them. “You got it!” She pinches Justin’s cheeks like she used to do when he was young, before turning and heading back into the kitchen, humming something Alex doesn’t recognize but is distinctly up beat.

“Alright,” Jerry’s voice floats up from the stairs and everyone turns to watch as he walks into view, “everything downstairs is ready for tomorrow so-” He stops short at the sight of Justin, his expression becoming unreadable. “Justin.”

For the first time since she found him, Justin looks a little nervous –unnecessarily as far as Alex is concerned- but she moves closer to him as a show of support anyways. “Hi dad.”

There’s silence for a few seconds and then it’s Jerry’s turn to crush Justin against him. Alex is close enough to him that she can actually feel the exact moment the tension leaks out of him as he gives their dad a hug.

Theresa makes a sound that Alex almost wants to call a squeal and she comes back from the kitchen to hug Justin from his other side. Max lights up like a Christmas tree and wiggles his way into the group hug. Alex rolls her eyes, but it’s mostly out of habit because she can’t keep the smile off her face and before she’s even aware of it she’s pushing her way into the fray too. They stay that way for several minutes (during which time Alex may or not hear Justin sniffle once or twice) before Theresa lets go to go back to finishing dinner. Jerry pulls back next, Alex and Max untangling themselves from the hug with the movement.

“I’m so glad you’re back.” He tells Justin and whatever reason Justin had for being nervous can’t possibly stand up against the affection in his words. “We’ve got _a lot_ to talk about.”

“But _first_ ,” Theresa interjects from the kitchen, still hard at work on the _paella_ , “something to eat.”

Jerry gives his wife a smile. “But first something to eat.” He agrees.

They turn on a basketball game until dinner is ready and then they all crowd around the table without even having to be called and Justin asks about how school is going for Max and his face lights up so brightly when they tell him about Alex’s scholarship that she’s pretty sure her magic responds to it (at least, that’s what she’s telling herself that funny feeling in her stomach is). They talk about anything and everything except for where Justin has been and what he’s been doing.

They don’t mention the secret that’s sitting in the lair either: Justin’s magic and the truths that surround it.

Partly because the dinner table is probably the not the best place to tell someone that you’re pretty sure he’s technically not a blood relative and he needs to take his magic back because his two siblings aren’t really his siblings and therefore they can’t actually take it, even if they wanted to (which they don’t).

But Alex suspects it’s mostly because they all know that once they tell Justin, once the truth comes out and they’re all forced to face the new reality in way they hadn’t before, that things will change.

And Alex will do anything, even eat a third plate of _paella_ that she doesn’t particularly want, if it means she gets to keep that normalcy. Even if it’s just for a few more bites.

~

Justin takes the news about as well as can be expected.

Which is to say that he thinks they’re all trying to play a practical joke on him, a kind of weird payback for the way he'd just disappeared.

They’ve moved to the lair after dinner and after a few false starts, in which Alex can see her father trying to figure out how to word everything, he finally just gets right to the heart of the matter and pulls Justin’s magic from where they’d stored it after he first left, telling Justin that he has to take his magic back because it doesn’t belong to anyone else but him.

Alex can see the look in Justin’s eyes as he takes in the sight of his magic, merged back together naturally after being placed into a single canister. She knows every cell in his body must be calling to have his magic back where it belongs, thrumming through his veins and dancing just underneath the surface of his skin. Alex has only lost her magic once, when Professor Crumbs took it, but she will never forget the emptiness, the hollow heavy feeling in her limbs, the way all her senses had seemed to dull. It had been some of the worst few minutes of her life. She can’t imagine how much worse that must have been for Justin, who’d had full blown powers, even if he didn’t know it, and suddenly his desire to study, study, study and win the competition makes so much more sense.

“That...that was supposed to be split between Alex and Max.” He says after several seconds of silence in which he’d just stared at his magic, drinking in the sight of it and probably fighting against every natural urge that he had to take it back for himself. Even his words sound like they’re painful for him to say.

“That’s just it, Justin.” Her dad shakes his head and pushes the canister closer to where Justin is sitting on the couch. “It can’t be split with anyone. Not until you have your own kids at least.”

“What?” Justin’s voice goes kind of high and squeaky, like it does sometimes when he’s nervous and normally Alex laughs at that, but right now she just move closer to him to remind him that he’s not alone.

“Maybe this will be easier if we show you.” Her dad turns to her and Max. “Can you guys pull up your powers?” She and Max do as he asks, calling up their own small orbs of magic, twin little balls of golden light with tendrils of magic swirling joyously around them. “See the difference?” Jerry asks.

Justin eyes flicker between the magic floating in Alex and Max’s hands and his own magic, sitting on the table right in front of him. His brow wrinkles in confusion. “Mine is bigger.”

Their dad (or, well, not _their_ dad given the conversation they’re currently having) nods, looking serious. “That’s because you’re not sharing it with anybody. We don’t know how it happened or why it happened, but I’ve been thinking about it since we realized your magic was different, and my best guess is that, for whatever reason, someone must have used magic to make all of us think that you’re a Russo when...when you’re not.”

“But you still belong to _us_ , okay?” Alex is quick to add, her voice fierce and sure as it’s ever been. “Whatever your magic might say and whoever’s DNA you might have, you belong here. With us.”

“That’s right.” Her mother agrees while everyone else nods along, moving around behind the couch to place supportive hands on Justin’s shoulders. “You may not biologically be my son, but you are still so important.” she gives his shoulders a gentle squeeze. “To all of us.”

And for whatever reason, maybe because their mom is usually terrible at pranks, that is when the truth finally sinks in. Alex can see the exact moment Justin realizes they aren’t lying to him because the color drains from his face and he goes sort of limp and boneless against the back of the sofa. Everyone waits patiently for him to collect his thoughts, because blood relative or no, they all spent enough time around Justin to recognize the signs of him processing new information.

“So I’m...I’m not a Russo.” He says finally after several minutes of silence.

“I don’t think so, no.”

Justin nods, clearly still only half with them as he processes this new information. “So I was... never sharing my powers with Alex and Max.”

Jerry shakes his head again. “You were not. Actually, that probably helps explain why you were so much better at magic then either of them. I mean, you definitely studied more, but with more magic it makes sense that the spells would come more easily to you. There’s also a dampening spell on your powers that kept them manageable while you were still learning. I would have removed it when you turned eighteen but, well, I had no idea it was there. The point is, I can show you how to remove it now.”

“I, uh,” Justin shakes his head and something like resolve must settle over him because he sits up straight, fully back in the moment and the need to know where Justin has been burns brighter in Alex because she has never seen him do that before, go from a panicked, spaced out mess to solid and present and seemingly ready for anything just by deciding to be before he left and he has to have learned that from _somewhere_. “Does this mean I can have my magic back?”

Jerry nudges the canister even closer to him and if he’s not careful Alex is concerned he might knock the thing onto the floor. “Even before they realized it wasn’t possible to take it, both Alex and Max refused to do anything with it but wait to give it back to you.”

“Yeah, Justin,” Max speaks up from Alex’s other side, “the magic belonged to _all_ of us. Or we thought it did.” He shakes his head. “Either way, we weren’t taking it and leaving you with nothing. Well, not until the wizard competition.”

Justin reaches out towards the canister and his magic knocks against the side of the glass, as if it can sense that he’s there and it wants to get back to him. “My magic.” He whispers breathlessly and it sounds sad and relieved and amazed all at the same time.

Jerry opens the canister and Justin’s magic practically leaps out into the open, settling easily into Justin’s outstretched hands for a brief second before sinking down into his skin. Justin glows golden with his power, but it fades quickly. The smile stretched across his face, however, does not. He clenches and unclenches his fists a few time, looking at his hands with something like awe on his face. He lets his magic spark along his fingertips and his grin widens.

“I’ve missed this.” He admits before looking up at all of them. “And all of you.” Confusion replaces the elation on his face and Alex is sorry to see it go. “But wait...you said someone must have used magic to make me –all of us- think that I was a Russo when I wasn’t. Who would do that?”

Jerry shrugs. “I honestly have no idea. It would require a heck of a lot of power to pull that off. So, whoever it was, they were a very powerful someone.”

“Or a couple of marginally powered someones.” Justin mutters darkly, but apparently only Alex is close enough to hear that because no one questions him about. Alex files it away as one more answer she’ll need to get from him before he leaves again.

“So you’re...okay with this?” Theresa asks cautiously. “About apparently not being a Russo?”

Justin takes a moment to consider his answer, but he looks less like he’s searching for the answer and more like he’s searching for the right words to give the answer with. “I think...yeah, I am.” He nods to himself once, quickly, surely. “I’ve always been different from Alex and Max and I really don’t look like Uncle Ernesto, no matter what anyone says. And I-” he cuts himself off with a quick shake of his head, “well anyways. I won’t deny that I’m curious about where my biological parents must be, or how I ended up here instead of with them without anyone being aware of it, but,” he shrugs, “I love you guys. Despite how much we may fight,” and here he nudges Alex almost playfully, “that was never conditional.”

That starts yet another group hug and Alex is not generally big on the whole touchy, feely, family thing, but right now there isn’t anywhere else she’d rather be then squished up against Justin, with him feeling solid and warm and _real_ beside her.

Whatever he is now, he’s still theirs ( _hers_ ), and everything is going to be okay.

~

“You know,” Justin sounds tired, but amused from where he’s lying in the dark on his bed, “I already promised I would stay the night. You don’t have to check up on me.”

Alex’s first instinct is to say something snarky to him, but she manages to bite her tongue just in time. She realizes that for all that Justin is still the same Justin who disappeared all those months ago, he’s also a little bit of a new Justin and if she wants him to be honest with her about things, she should probably start by being honest with him. “I’m not checking up on you.” She promises. “I just-” she stops, “Is that a Captain Jim Bob Sherwood backpack?” She picks up the offending item, which she’d just barely been able to make out in moonlight spilling in from Justin’s open window.

Justin surprises her once again when, instead of getting defensive, he just chuckles. “Well, I took my other backpack when I left and there’s some stuff I want to bring back with me now that I’ve got my powers back and Dad has unlocked them. And also my sweater, which I can’t seem to find-” Alex steps closer to the bed and into the moonlight, “because you’re wearing it apparently.”

Alex gives him a sheepish smile. “It was comfy.” Then she shakes her head and sits down on the edge of the bed. “And I didn’t come here to check up on you. I-I’ve been sleeping in here since you left.”

The surprise that crosses his face is mixed with something else that Alex can’t quite identify. “Why?” He whispers.

Alex shrugs. “You were just gone _and_ suddenly you were apparently never my brother! And I-I know you left your magic thinking that Max and I would use it so obviously you didn’t know that, but I guess a part of me was afraid that you did know that and you would just stay gone because you didn’t have any reason to come back.” She’s crying again, tears shining in the moonlight and hands twisting up in Justin’s too big sweater. “And I just...it just helped.”

Justin sits up as soon as she starts crying and she finds herself pulled into another hug (seriously, there has been so much hugging in the past 12 hours). “I’m sorry.” He says, pulling her tighter against him. “I didn’t-I thought you would be okay without me.”

She looks up at him, eyes still wet with tears. “Justin, I’m pretty sure that I’m never going to be okay without you. You’ve always been here, for as long as I can remember. I know we never really talked about it much,” (except for once, around a campfire when everything was falling apart around them and she’d been afraid that she might never get another chance to say it,) “But you’re always there for me.” She sniffles. “I know you probably only helped me so much because you thought you were my big brother but I-”

“Hey.” He cuts her off, his voice stern. “No. None of that. Listen to me.” He lets his hands slide up to her biceps, holding on in a way that’s almost tight enough to hurt but is mostly just grounding. “I meant what I said earlier. I don’t-it doesn’t matter about that stuff. I love you. That wasn’t an obligation. And it never will be.”

She blinks and a few more tears slip down her cheeks. “Then why did you leave?”

For the first time since she found him again, Justin drops his eyes to avoid her gaze. “I’d...rather not talk about that.”

“Can you at least tell me how you left without magic? Where did you go? Did-was it something I did?”

Justin shakes his head so forcefully that it actually startles her a little. “Alex, _no_. It had-Look, I left because of _me_ and nothing else. And I left using, well, I call them transportation pebbles. I was working on creating them before I left my magic behind. I made a couple of them with preset destinations so I could use them even after I’d given up my magic.” He sighs. “As for where I went...Well, I took all the cash I’d saved up and spent the first few months going to a few different places just to make sure no one was trying to follow me. I thought about applying for med school, because being a doctor would be pretty awesome, but well,” he shrugs, “I thought that might make it too easy to find me and I wasn’t ready for that yet.”

He falls back onto the bed and because he’s still loosely holding on to her, she goes with him. They end up lying on their sides, facing each other, their lower legs tangled together the way they used to when they were small and sharing a bed when they visited their grandmother. There’s silence for a little bit while they just stare at each other and Alex gets the distinct impression that they’re both trying to memorize the other person. Like this might be the last time they see each other. The thought seizes Alex with a sudden terror.

“Please stay!” She blurts. Justin actually looks pained and Alex reaches out and grabs onto his shirt, tangling her fingers in the fabric. “ _Please_.”

He brings a hand up to wrap around the one that she has against his chest. “I can’t.” He tells her and he sounds incredibly sad. “I’m sorry. But I really can’t.”

“Why?” She’s trying not to sound frantic, but she suspects that she’s not doing so well given the gentle look on Justin’s face. “Why not?”

He sighs and leans forward to press his forehead against hers for a moment. “When I first decided I needed to leave everything –including my powers- behind, I started reaching out to other wizards who had lost their powers: either to their siblings in their family’s competition or because they gave them up to be with a mortal. I was hoping they’d know some ways to help handle losing my powers, I knew it would be hard,” he makes a face, “I never realized how hard though. Anyways,” he shakes his head, bringing himself back to the moment, “After I decided it was safe to stay in one place, I reached out to them and I actually met a wizard who was trying to find his brother –they’d lost touch after he’d won their competition. And eventually he told me about, well...” He hesitates for just a second before steeling himself and meeting her gaze.

“Alex, there’s a resistance that’s working to overthrow the Wizard Council.”

Whatever Alex had expected him –rule loving, self-imposed bed time having Justin- to say, it wasn’t that. “Wait. _What_?”

He nods, looking earnest and serious and grown up in a way that she’s never really associated with him before. “There’s a group of former wizards, wizards who have had their families torn apart, vampires, werewolves, zombies, even some mortals who know about magic, that are working to try and change the way things work. The Wizard Council... they’ve been-” he shakes his head, “well the list is long, but they’ve been treating anyone who isn’t a full wizard as second class citizens for years and separating wizards from their magic and their families for no reason.”

“But I thought we had to have the wizard competition. Because our magic required it.”

Justin shakes his head. “That’s what I thought, I’m pretty sure it’s what a lot of people think. But that wizard friend I mentioned, the one who introduced me to the resistance in the first place? He and his older brother didn’t have their Wizard competition until he was in his _thirties_.”

“What!”

“Yeah. His brother is a year older than him, but his parents had an, um, unexpected baby when he was fifteen so they had to wait until she turned eighteen to have their competition. They went a good portion of their adult lives with magic and _nothing happened_.”

Alex’s head feels like it’s spinning and she’s glad their lying down because Justin just ripped the metaphorical magic flying carpet out from underneath her feet. Everything she ever knew is suddenly different and it’s not like Alex has ever been the biggest fan of authority, but there are some rules that were just so inherently a part of your life that you forget to question them and here’s Justin –the biggest rule lover of them all- questioning all of them and all but saying he’s agreed to help get rid of them. It’s a lot to take in, but through her confusion and amazement there’s a spark of anger at the Wizard Council and a fierce flame of pride in Justin for fighting against them, in whatever way he might be.

She realizes she’s shaking when Justin pulls her closer to him, arms wrapped protectively around her. “It’ll be okay,” he whispers, voice muffled by her hair, “I promise.”

“O-okay.” She finds her voice and it’s stronger than she was expecting, but Justin doesn’t look the slightest bit surprised by the anger that lingers just below the surface. “Okay. I get why you can’t stay. But,” She pulls back so she can face him. “Can you at least say you’ll come home once in a while? Just to visit. You know, so mom and dad don’t worry too much.”

Justin chuckles softly, but otherwise doesn’t call her out her pretty obvious lie (it’s usually so easy to pull the wool over his eyes. Except for when it isn’t). “I can promise I’ll try.” He tells her.

It’s not exactly the answer she was hoping to hear, but at least she can be sure that she’ll get to see him again. And she knows the reason he has to leave this time. All the tension leaves her body and suddenly she’s just exhausted. “I guess that’s good enough.” She slips under the covers, burying her head in one of Justin’s pillows, a happy sigh escaping her as her eyes slip shut.

“You’re...not leaving, are you?”

Ignoring the strange tone in his voice, Alex smiles, pulling the blanket tighter around her. “Nope.” He’s leaving in the morning to go off and fight with a wizard resistance, so he’s just going to have deal with her being a little clingy tonight.

He sighs in exasperation in response, but after a second she feels the bed shifting as he settles back down. “Good night, Alex.” And honestly, he only sounds a little exasperated at this point.

Her hand finds his under the covers and she circles his wrist with her fingers, trying to hold on to him for as long as she can. “Good night, Justin.”

When she wakes up the next morning, Justin is gone, but he leaves her his sweater and this time he leaves a better note.

_I’m sorry I had to leave again. Don’t tell mom and dad too much. Just tell them that I’m okay. And that I love them. And don’t worry. I’ll come back when I can. I’ve never been very good at saying ‘no’ to you, after all._

~

It takes less than a week for Alex to find him again, and honestly most of that time was spent convincing her parents to let her go in the first place.

The look on his face when he opens the door to house she tracked him to, a cozy almost cottage-y little house in Vernazza, Italy, is absolutely priceless. His eyes bug out the way the only do when she either really catches him off guard or makes him really angry (or both, most of the time it’s usually both) and he just kind of gapes at her for a moment. “Alex!”

She smiles up at him, wide and disarming and not at all like she’s trying to charm him into letting her stay and join the resistance. Which, you know, she is, but first she needs to remind him how adorable and wonderful she is. “I found you.”

“Wha-why-how...how did you find me?”

Alex smirks. “I figured you’d disappear on me again, so I used magic to get my hands on a mortal tracker and slipped into your backpack that night. Wasn’t super hard to find you after that.”

Justin shakes his head, like he can’t quite believe what he’s hearing, but the corners of his mouth are raised and she knows he’s also secretly pretty impressed. “Fine,” he gives her a soft smile, “you found me. Now what are you doing here?”

She straightens up, doing her best to put on her most serious expression. “I’m here to join the resistance with you.”

A look of horror flashes over his face and he steps out onto the porch, pulling the door shut behind him. “What? Alex, no! I am not letting you put yourself in danger like that!”

“And I’m not letting you do this on your own!” Alex grabs his arm with both hands, desperate to make him understand that she’s not going anywhere. “I can’t-look everything felt all wrong when you weren’t there and then you come back just long enough to tell me you’re part of an underground resistance to overthrow the Wizard Council! I made up my mind the night of my graduation. This is a good cause, but more than that, it’s important to you. So I’m not going to let you fight it alone. We’re going to win this thing and knock those crusty old wizards flat on their asses!”

Justin raises an eyebrow at her sudden burst of confidence, but he shouldn’t be that surprised. Charging confidently head first into things (especially things other people don’t want her charging into) is sort of how she’s operated for years. “We will, huh?”

“Of course.” Her hand slips down his arm to grab his hand, weaving their fingers together and giving it a quick squeeze. “It’s you and I. How could we not?”

And his whole face goes soft around the edges and the corners of his eyes crinkle up like they do when he’s really happy and Alex knows without a doubt that he understands her words and all the things she is trying to say with them. He said them first after all. “Fine.” He relents and if he tightens his grip on her hand she isn’t about to call him out on it. “You can stay. Honestly, we could probably use a little of your scheming expertise.”

Alex grins in triumph. “Awesome. So where’s the headquarters?” She raises an eyebrow, her voice dropping an octave like she’s uncovering a big secret, “Or do I have to earn their trust by doing missions before they’ll let me in?”

He’s giving her the same look he gives Max when he’s being ridiculous, but his smile is still soft so she doesn’t even mind. “No. I trust you. That’s enough for me. And the headquarters is right here.” He points to the plain wooden door behind him.

“Here?” Alex raises an eyebrow and tries to imagine the amount of people it must take for a successful resistance in what can’t be more than a two bedroom house. “The headquarters for a whole resistance is in here?”

Justin laughs, not unkindly, and squeezes her hand again before pulling her forward and through the front door. “A whole _magical_ resistance.” He reminds her as he leads her through a homey looking living room and into what looks like an ordinary study. He picks up a book from a bookcase and it glows briefly before it and the bookcase vanish entirely, leaving a set of stairs that clearly lead underground. Alex knows she’s gaping, because Justin has that smug expression he gets whenever he masters a tricky bit of magic. “You program a wizard’s magic into the spell and any book they pick up will open the door. But if you’re magic hasn’t been added, it’s just a bookcase, no matter how many books you mess with.”

Alex eyes the now visible staircase curiously. “What if you don’t have your magic anymore?”

“Even if a wizard loses their magic during their family competition, they still have that underlying bit of magic. It’s not enough to do anything with, but once magic has you, it never really goes away. Even other supernatural creatures, like vampires and werewolves, have that kind of base magic. And it’s enough to make the spell react to your presence.” He shrugs. “The few born-mortals that are part of us just have to come in with someone else.”

“Wow...” Alex takes a tentative step forward and is glad that Justin opts to go at her pace rather than remove his hand from hers. “You guys aren’t playing around.”

“We can’t.” Justin’s voice is grim and if she turned to look at him, she knows what she’d see on his face. “This hasn’t become an actual war yet. And hopefully it won’t ever. But...”

“But you have to be safe.” Alex finishes for him. “Just in case.”

Before Justin can respond they reach the bottom of the stairs and Alex is kind of surprised to see that it’s just...another, bigger, house essentially. There’s even windows that have obviously been charmed to show the outside world so that it doesn’t feel too claustrophobic or cave like. It’s big though, and Alex suspects that, with a little magical help, the headquarters is always exactly as big as they need it to be.

And there are people _everywhere_.

Justin is back to leading her through the headquarters, nodding in response to the many people who call out to him in greeting. They move through a living room with wizards and at least one vampire sitting around watching TV. They pass by what might be study but also might be a fancy dining room (it’s hard to tell from the quick glance she got) where several people are surrounding a table and pouring over maps and other papers, discussing something in serious tones. They move into the largest kitchen Alex has ever seen in her life, where a middle aged blonde wizard is chopping up some peppers. Beside him, a knife magically minces some garlic and behind him there’s an enchanted spoon stirring what smells like an incredibly tasty pasta sauce.

“Logan!” Justin greets and when the wizard chef looks up and spots them, he smiles widely.

“Hey!” He nods towards Alex, his hands never slowing down. “Who’s this?”

“This,” Justin nudges her forward just a little, “is Alex.”

That does cause Logan’s movements to stop, just for a second. “Really? You’re Alex?”

Alex could almost swear Justin is blushing, but he just nods. “Yeah.” He turns back to her. “Alex, this is Logan. He’s the wizard who introduced me to the resistance in the first place.”

“Nice to meet you.” Logan nods again, sending the now diced peppers into the pot with a flick of his wrist and moving on to an onion. “Justin has told us all about you.”

She laughs. “Nothing good, I’m sure.”

“Nah.” The chef grins guiltily in her direction. “Well, maybe one or two not so good things. But even those were spoken of fondly.” Justin is definitely blushing now and Alex can’t help the happy laugh that escapes her. “So is this a social visit or...” He trails off and Alex grins.

“No. I’m here to join the resistance.”

Logan’s face lights up at her words. “Awesome! It’s always good to have more people dedicated to the cause. Hey Erin!”

A petite brunette girl pokes her head into the room. “What?”

“Come tell me what this sauce is missing.”

This new girl –Erin apparently- walks in and to Alex’s surprise she leans over the bubbling pot of sauce and breathes in deeply. “Needs more rosemary.” She says after a few beats of silence.

“Werewolf.” Justin tells Alex helpfully.

“Wrong.” Says a pretty girl with hair so blonde it’s almost white as she walks by the kitchen, not even looking up from whatever book she’s reading. “It needs more thyme.”

“ _Jamie_.” Erin growls out.

“Vampire.” Justin supplies cheerfully. “They’re actually best friends.”

Erin turns to face them and seems to notice Alex for the first time. “Oh! Hi! You’re new!”

Alex laughs, because she’s not rolling around in the grass, but there’s definitely a puppy like excitement lighting up Erin’s face. “Hi. I’m Alex.”

“Justin’s Alex?” If possible her face lights up even more. “It’s so great to meet you!”

“Alex is joining the resistance.” Logan tells her, adding more of both thyme and rosemary to the sauce.

“Yay!” Erin bounds over to them and pulls Alex into a quick hug. “It’s always great to get more girls! Also, you are required by resistance law to tell us _every_ embarrassing story you have about Justin.”

Damn, Alex is going to _love_ it here. “That may take a while, but, well,” She shrugs, “I live to serve.”

Justin sounds like he might be choking on the all the bullshit in her statement, but when she nudges him with her elbow and turns to glare at him he’s actually smiling, laughter lighting up his eyes, and being part of magical resistance shouldn’t be making him _more_ chill but –whatever- Alex isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Wait?” Alex turns back to Logan and Erin. “That’s it? Justin says I want to join and you guys are just okay with it?”

The wizard and werewolf share a look before shrugging.

“Yeah.” Erin says, smiling. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Logan nods, adding the onions to the sauce. “We trust Justin’s judgement. He’s the leader for the reason, you know?”

And, um, no- Alex _didn’t_. She rounds on Justin who can only smile sheepishly at her. “You’re the _leader_ of this magical revolution?!”

“Um,” He shrugs, “Sort of.”

She snorts (not her most ladylike feature, but Justin has seen her dragging herself out of her room after being down for the count for days because of the flu so, whatever). “Sort of. Oh my god. I cannot believe how badass you’ve gotten.”

Logan grins. “Justin’s been a god send. We were barely organized and our plan was essentially “winging it” before he joined us.”

Alex kind of wants to stand there and gap at Justin, who is still standing there looking sheepish, but also a little proud, but Logan and Erin are still watching them so she settles for smiling (okay, so she gaps a little, but a lot has happened in the past eight months and honestly Alex deserves a little time to gap). “Does this mean you’ll be the boss of me?”

Justin grins. “Yeah it does.” He quirks an eyebrow in a clear challenge. “Think you can handle that?”

Something warm blossoms in Alex’s chest at his words, and she’s suddenly aware that he’s _still_ holding her hand, but she finds she doesn’t mind very much at all. “Oh, I think I’ll be fine.”

It’s not like she’d had any doubt about her decision to begin with, but if she had (which, you know, would have been totally understandable –she’s only eighteen and this is the fate of the Wizard World they're talking about), it would have been completely banished at the look on Justin’s face at her reply. He uses their clasped hands to pull her towards him and into a one armed hug and presses a feather light kiss to the top of her head.

“Welcome,” he tells her with a fierce kind of pride in his voice, “to the Revolution.”

Erin and Logan both cheer and Alex can’t stop the smile that spreads across her face. She is _so_ ready for this.

~

It’s the end of the Wizard World as she knows it. And Alex feels fine.


	2. How It Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, inspiration didn't even try and visit me, so I'm afraid we're all just stuck with this title.
> 
> I looked everywhere to find a canonical birthday for Max, I read the entire wiki page dedicated to him and I still got nothing, so now it's some unidentified day in January.
> 
> If you've never listened to _Love You Like the Movies_ by Anthem Lights, I cannot stress enough that you need to go listen to it right now. It's hilarious.
> 
> Also, Justin may know what he's doing but I almost certainly do not.

Alex’s first couple months as part of the resistance are less...action packed then she had been expecting. She spends the first few weeks she’s there splitting her time between getting to know the other people she’s working with and exploring Vernazza (the resistance is important –obviously- but it’s _Italy_ , okay?).

Vernazza is an old town and the magic that resides there is older than anything that Alex has ever felt back in New York and it’s exhilarating, the way it makes the magic running through her veins rush with joy. Her magic always feels like it’s just below the surface of her skin, ready to jump out and perform at a moment’s notice. Casting spells has never been as easy in New York as it is here and Alex loves it. Even without that benefit, Alex suspects she would love this place anyways.

The quiet little town is absolutely breathtaking and, surprisingly, Alex finds that one of her favorite things to do is explore the town with Justin (usually in the evenings after everyone has wrapped up the day’s activities) and let him tell her all about their new home. It’s a little seaside town that barely has like two cars and all of the locals are incredibly friendly. There’s even one older lady who works at the town’s bakery who loves Justin as if he was her own grandson. The first time she’d caught sight of them strolling casually down the street she’d called out to Justin in Italian and he’d returned her greeting and introduced her to Alex in his own fairly flawless Italian that had left Alex shocked about yet another way in which he had changed while he was gone.

Mrs. Mancini (Justin had told her the old woman’s name after they’d walked away) had shoved two giant chocolate chip cookies into their hands –still warm from the oven and smelling amazing- before she’d pinched Justin on the check and told him something in Italian that Alex hadn’t understood but that had turned Justin pink to the tips of his ears.

When she’d questioned him about this around a mouthful of what was almost definitely the best cookie she had ever eaten, he’d just laughed –a little weirdly- and blamed it on her acting like a typical doting grandma. “I came here before I even knew about the resistance,” he’d admitted, taking smaller bites of his own cookie, “because mom tried her best to teach us about our Spanish heritage, but we never got to learn much about Italy from dad. I guess I just never expected the people here to like me so much.”

He’d promised to cast a language spell on her to help her speak and understand Italian and Alex still can’t believe this is the same Justin who used to give her the stink eye when she used magic to make her bed.

The rest of her time is spent with the other members of the resistance. They’re researching the best way to get the upper hand on the Wizard Council. There’s an understanding from all the involved members that they’re all willing to do whatever it takes to make this successful, but Justin wants to try and make sure everything happens as peacefully as possible and everyone is behind him on that.

That doesn’t stop Justin from teaching anyone who still has magic all the battle spells he’d been learning for the wizard competition though.

Alex is honestly blown away by watching Justin work. Planning and structure have always been his thing, but he’s surprisingly inspirational too and it doesn’t take her long to realize why they decided to make him the leader. He clearly knows what he’s doing, but he’s also not smug and insufferable like he was when he was back at home and Alex wonders how much of that has to do with the fact that he doesn’t feel this pressure to prove himself, the desperate need to be the best because if he isn’t he’ll lose this thing inside him that he needs like he needs to breath.

It makes his company so much more enjoyable and Alex wonders if it could have always been like this. If they had known from the start that he wasn’t a Russo, that he didn’t have to fight to keep his powers, would they have always been the friends that they’re quickly becoming now?

Most of the resistance lives in the house that’s underground, but for the sake of appearances, Justin lives in the actual house and after seeing the view of the sea from outside the window in the guest bedroom, Alex had quickly decided that she would be joining him up there. And while they almost always have dinner down with the resistance, they often spend the rest of the evening up in the actual house, usually with a few of their friends, but sometimes by themselves. The drinking age in Italy is 16 and even though she knows her parents would probably freak out, Justin always looks the other way when she pours herself a glass of wine to match his and they spend the time talking or sitting in companionable silence and just enjoying each other’s company.

It’s almost the quiet kind of life that Alex had never pictured for herself, but is starting to learn that she wouldn’t mind having. And sometimes, on days when it’s been particularly quiet down in the headquarters, and she’s had maybe a little bit more than one glass of wine, and she’s curled up next to Justin on the little bench on their porch, and she’s warm and sleepy and almost at peace (except for the hum of magic in the air that reminds her of what’s going on below them), she wonders if maybe after everything is over, after they win and they change the Wizard World (because of course they’re going to), if maybe they could come back and stay here for good.

She doesn’t know how to say any of that out loud yet, so instead she just rests her head on Justin’s shoulder as they sit in silence and watch the sunset paint the sky hues of red and purple and orange that Alex thinks she could capture with her paints...

If she used a little bit of magic.

~

“Okay, what’s the plan?”

Justin looks up at her from where he’s hunched over a pile of papers, rubbing his eyes briefly before giving her a tired smile. “What?”

Alex pushes off of the door frame that she’d been leaning against and makes her way further into the room. She moves some paper out of the way and hops up to sit on the desk. “Here,” she holds the plate she’d been carrying at him, the roast beef sandwich and carrot sticks she’d just made moving a bit, but mostly staying on the plate (maybe a little bit of lettuce falls off into Justin’s lap, but lettuce doesn’t stain and the bit of mustard that was on the lettuce well-he’s barely left this office all day so it’s not like anyone will notice), “I know you haven’t eaten all day. Sandwiches and brownies are about where my culinary expertise ends so I hope you still like roast beef.”

He goes cross eyed for a second, trying to focus on the sandwich that’s all but right under his nose before reaching up to take a plate from her and smiling. “Thanks. Although I’m pretty sure that sandwiches and brownies don’t count as culinary expertise.”

She sticks her tongue out at him, but he takes a bite of the sandwich and lets out such a grateful sounding groan that she doesn’t fight back. He’s been working twice as hard as usual and something in the air in the headquarters is starting to feel electric even if no one can say exactly why. But Alex didn’t grow up with Justin for nothing, if he won’t tell her, she’s especially adept at tricking information out of him. “So...” She prompts again, trying not to laugh as he practically inhales his food, “the plan?”

“What plan?” It’s a testament to how hungry he must be that he says this around a mouthful of sandwich and Alex can’t help the laughter that escapes her. Justin blushes a little and makes a point of swallowing before speaking again. “What plan?”

“Come on, Justin!” Alex gestures vaguely to the papers on his desk. “You’ve been working extra hard the past few days and you’ve been more tense then I’ve seen you in _months_. Mitchell and Jackson got back from some reconnaissance (Justin taught her that word two months ago and she’s been using it whenever possible –which isn’t surprisingly hard given what their day jobs currently are) mission and suddenly you're so keyed up you’re practically vibrating with energy? Something’s up. Either Major Jim Bob Sherdork just released a new collectible or you’ve got a plan.”

Justin glares at her, but it’s more playful then anything (the truth is they hardly ever fight anymore). “ _Captain_ Jim Bob _Sherwood_.” He corrects her, nudging her thigh with his elbow. “And no, he hasn’t. But I _do_ have a plan. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and Mitchell and Jackson came back with the information that I needed to pull it off.”

Alex grins. Justin’s number one goal in this whole resistance has been to pull it off successfully and peacefully and yeah he’s tense but it’s like an excited kind of tense? Like he’s got all this energy and enthusiasm, but isn’t sure if he can release it just yet. But he wouldn’t be like that if he didn’t think he had something good. Something game changing.

“Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!” Alex is practically bouncing in her seat with her excitement. Justin gives her a bemused smile but she waves it off. “Come on! I know you’re dying to tell _someone_!”

And just like...he caves.

“You’re right.” The grin that slides across his face is actually kind of breathtaking. “Remember your friend Stevie?” Alex nods. “Well, she actually had the right idea. Destroying the transfer machine is actually a pretty good way to put a dent in the Wizard Council’s control over the Wizard World. Stevie just...she was going about it wrong.”

“Really?” Because Alex does remember Stevie and she remembers how against her Justin had been. About how little faith he’d had in her to do the right thing when Stevie had tried to recruit her. About how much that had stung.

Some of the bitterness she felt about the situation must slip into her tone because Justin gives her a small smile. “Stevie was doing what she was doing for the wrong reasons, Alex. She wasn’t worried about fairness for everyone. She just wanted the power for herself.” He shakes his head. “Also, her plan was terribly thought out. Do you know how many alarms and booby traps the Wizard Council has set up around the transfer machine? I’m honestly kind of surprised that the spell you did to trap her to the machine didn’t set any of them off.”

Alex blinks in shock. “Alarms and traps? So you...”

Justin reaches over and gives her knee a gentle squeeze. “I never really thought you were evil, Alex. But I didn’t have a way of telling you without telling Stevie and we both know Harper can’t lie to save her life. I couldn’t risk you getting caught, no matter what your intentions were. Even then I knew the Wizard Council probably wouldn’t care if you were just trying to trick Stevie.”

“You could have just trusted me.”

Guilt flashes briefly across Justin’s face as he nods. “You’re right I could have. And I should have. I guess I just didn’t want to risk something happening to you. Looking out for you has been my job for a long time.” He shrugs. “It’s hard to let go of that. Even when I know you’re strong enough to start looking out for yourself.”

“Damn you.” Alex grumbles, crossing her arms and trying her best to glare. “You’re making it really hard to be mad at you about this.”

Justin chuckles and puts the plate down, so he can reach up with both hands to uncross her arms. “Guess who taught me how to do _that_?” He gives her a meaningful look.

“Fine.” Alex rolls her eyes and waves her hand dismissively. “My evil genius has rubbed off on you and I guess I can’t get mad at you for that. Now tell me the rest of your plan!”

“Right. So Stevie wasn’t wrong about trying to destroy the transfer machine, the only problem was all the alarms and the traps.”

“And?” Alex’s prompts.

“And,” Justin’s grin widens as he holds up one of the papers he was studying when she walked in, “Mitchell and Jackson were able to get a pretty recent layout of the transfer machine room. Including all the alarms and booby traps. Meaning we can disarm them and actually get to the transfer machine to destroy it.”

“Wow, this is serious. _You’re_ serious. We’re doing it!”

“Yeah we are.” Justin stands up, stretching his hands over his head and Alex cringes slightly at the noise his back makes as it pops. “It won’t stop them completely, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.” His face darkens. “But that means we’ll have to start getting more serious. They won’t take this lying down, but I honestly have no idea how they’ll retaliate. So we’ll have to be ready for anything.”

Alex gives him a sympathetic smile. “I know you’ll do whatever you can to make sure this ends as peacefully as possible.”

Justin gives a bitter laugh. “That’s what I’ve been hoping for, but honestly Alex, think about all the history you know. When has a revolution ever ended peacefully?”

She doesn’t have an answer for that, so instead of saying anything, Alex slides off the desk and moves to wrap her arms around his middle. He sighs and brings his arms up to wrap around her, holding her tightly. For the first time since she found him again, Justin seems to really be feeling the weight of the resistance –of being its leader- and there isn’t much that Alex can do, but she can do this.

She can hold him and help him carry the weight. Even just a little.

~

Alex meets Sarah on what should be an ordinary Thursday. She’s been at the resistance long enough that she knows all the faces (and almost all the names), but she’s greeted one day by a short brunette woman she’s never seen before. She’s dressed in grey leggings and an over-sized cable knit sweater, with her hair in a messy bun at the top of her head. Despite her laid back appearance, the woman radiates an urgency and excitement that catches Alex off guard.

Especially since this mystery woman knows her name.

“Alex!” The mystery woman is suddenly right in front of her, shaking her hand, “I’m Sarah. I knew when Justin showed up that it was only a matter of time before you did too.”

“Um...” Alex blinks, not really sure what else to do. “Hi?”

Sarah beams, but stops shaking her hand, which is something at least. “I’m sorry. I just, I’m so excited. This is history in the making, you know?”

“Well, yeah.” Alex shrugs, “But Justin always figured he’d go down in history for something. This is probably the best cause he could have chosen.”

The woman laughs. “You have no idea right you are.”

“What?”

“Sarah!” Justin’s voice interrupts Sarah before she can respond and both girls turn to face Justin, who’s walking over to join them. “You’re finally back! We haven’t seen you in months.”

“I know,” Sarah makes a face. “The Wizard Council was starting to get suspicious about me disappearing so much so I had to lay low. But listen,” Her voice turns urgent, “I need to talk to you both. In private.”

Justin nods, suddenly serious and all business. “Yeah. Of course. Come on.” He ushers them both into his office and as Sarah settles down onto the plush couch that’s pushed up against one wall, Alex turns to face him.

“The Wizard Council?” She raises an eyebrow.

“Believe me, I know what you’re thinking. And Sarah _does_ work for the Wizard Council. But she works _with_ us. I’ve given her every truth spell and potion I could think of-”

“And believe me,” Sarah interjects with a smile, “he knows _a lot_.”

“And she passed all of them. She’s on our side. I promise.”

Alex turns to Sarah who nods vigorously. “My sister stopped speaking to me after I won our competition. And I’ve always hated that. And then...well, maybe I should tell you my news first.”

“Right. Sorry about that.” He puts a hand on Alex’s back and guides her gently to the couch so they can both join Sarah.” “So, what’s going on?” He asks after they’ve all sat down.

Sarah actually looks a little guilty as she answers. “I...I know what happened. To you. Why you got taken from your family and placed with the Russos, I mean. I’m sorry.” She rushes to apologize before Justin or Alex have a chance to speak. “I know I should have told you earlier, when we first met or when you came back from seeing your family and told us you’d found out what you did, but I wanted to wait until Alex was here. After you joined us I knew Alex wouldn’t be far behind. And it’s just...well it involves Alex, the reason I mean, so I just thought it would probably be best to wait and tell you guys were together.

If Alex hadn’t known that Sarah was a wizard because she worked for the Wizard Council, she would have guessed it from the way she has said all of this without taking a single breath and she hasn’t even started to turn blue. Justin is looking a little dazed himself, but he shakes his head. “It’s okay.” He smiles encouragingly. “I trust you. Tell us everything.”

“Remember how I told you that I work for the Wizard Council studying prophecies?” Alex doesn’t, but Justin is nodding so she doesn’t say anything. “Did you guys get to prophecies in your Wizard Lessons?” This time they both shake their heads. Sarah gives a small smile. “I’m not surprised. Prophecies are so few and far between. They almost never get taught anymore. And, honestly, I’m one of the few wizards who even studies them anymore. And the two of you, you were both born with prophecies.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

Sarah laughs softly at them and Alex can only imagine the looks on their faces right now. “Not a lot of wizards are born with a prophecy, and even those that do have one, they usually aren’t anything Earth shattering. I think the last wizard who was born with a major prophecy was Harry Whodunit.”

Alex scrunches her eyebrows in confusion. “Who?”

“Harry Whodunit.” Justin explains, because of course he’d know who this nobody is. “He was the wizard who established the Wizard Council. Who made the Wizard Competition what it is. Who basically established every rule the Wizard World has. He’s like...our founding father.” Huh, maybe not so much of nobody then. “How do you not know who is he?” Alex gives him a look and he actually laughs. “Actually, never mind.”

Sarah shakes her head at them, but she looks as amused as Justin does. “Anyways, his prophecy was _bringer of order to chaos_ and obviously we can see how that worked out. There hasn’t been another prophecy since then that has really garnered any kind of attention. Until your father was born.” Here she looks at Alex.

“Dad?”

Sarah nods. “Yeah. Like I said, it’s my job to study prophecies and I’ve been doing it for almost 70 years and your father’s prophecy is the first one that actually seemed to have any kind of weight to it.”

“What was it?” Justin asks.

“ _Father of a revolution_.” Sarah says solemnly.

Alex snorts. She can’t help it. “Daddy? Father of a revolution? I love him, but you can distract him with a pudding cup. It’s hard to imagine him as the father of a revolution.”

Justin coughs, a lame attempt at trying to hide his laughter and even Sarah chuckles. “The Wizard Council had me keep an eye on your father, trying to see if he was looking to start any kind of revolution, but he never seemed particularly interested in rocking the boat. And then he gave up his powers to marry your mother so they mostly stopped paying attention. Until he had a daughter and she had her own prophecy: _the catalyst_.” Alex feels goosebumps break out up and down her arms because she realizes that Sarah is talking about her.

“I’m the catalyst? For what.”

Sarah smiles. “For the revolution. See, about a year before you were born, another young wizard was born with a prophecy and if his prophecy alone wasn’t enough to make the Wizard Council nervous, then all three prophecies being so close together certainly was.”

“What-” Justin’s voice has gone high and strangled and it’s been so long since Alex has heard him sound that way that it actually catches her off guard. “What, uh,” He coughs to try and clear his throat. “What was his prophecy?”

“ _Leader of the new Wizard World Order_.”

Alex immediately turns to face Justin and can only watch as all the color drains from his face and he goes boneless, slumping back against the back of the couch. Because Sarah wouldn’t be sitting here telling them this if the prophecy was about anyone other than Justin.

“I guess I don’t need to tell you that the boy born with that prophecy was you, do I?” Sarah takes a deep breath and Alex wonders how long she’s been carrying this around, holding on to this big secret and not able to talk about it with anyone. “The truth is, your real name is Justin Delaney. Your parents were Daniel and Samantha Delaney. Both wizards. And when they died, you were supposed to go live with their best friends. A mortal couple who knew about the existence of magic, Melissa and Nate. And they live in New York City. On Waverly Place.” Alex’s breathe catches in her throat, “And they really love to eat at a certain sub shop down the road from them.”

“The Wizard Council looked into it and I don’t how they figured it out, -which pisses me off because that’s my whole damn job!- but they decided the best way to stop you from fulfilling the prophecy was to take Justin from the mortals and modify everyone’s memory to make them think he was a Russo. That he’d always been a Russo. Then they locked the prophecy’s up so I didn’t have a chance to go behind them and study them together. But,” the smirk she gives them isn’t so different from the one Alex gives people when she knows she’s pulled one over on them, “but they didn’t realize that as soon as they did that, they created an alternate timeline and there are about a dozen different spells I can use to look at those.”

“So?”

Sarah shrugs. “So I did. And it turns out that you were supposed to grow up down the road from the Waverly Sub Station. You and Alex were actually supposed to be friends, good friends, and eventually you’d realize you’re both wizards and you would join Alex and Max for their wizard lessons with their dad.”

Alex raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

Sarah nods. “Yeah. I can show you the other Justin and Alex, if you want.” Alex shares a look with Justin and they both nod. Sarah smiles brightly. “Great!” She pulls out her wand, says a quick spell, and then a large bubble is floating between all of them, giving off a slight golden glow. In the bubble is a scene that Alex will never forget: a campfire in the middle of the woods and her and Justin sitting around it, looking tired and lost and terrified. “The other version of you ended up having a pretty similar adventure in the Caribbean.” Sarah explains. And then she flicks her wand again and suddenly Alex can hear the crackle of the campfire and sound of the insects.

And then the other Justin speaks.

_“You warm enough?” He asks, moving to take off his outer shirt until Alex nods._

_“I’m fine.” She answers, scooting a little closer and letting her head fall onto Justin’s shoulder._

_“Hey,” Justin nudges her gently, “come on. Everything is going to be fine.” When Alex doesn’t answer, Justin nudges her again. “Want to see something cool?” Alex just shrugs listlessly in response. “Come on, hold out your hand.”_

_She does as she’s told, resting her hand palm side up on his knee. Justin grins. “Okay, now watch this.”_

_He holds his hand over hers, letting his pointer finger hover a few inches above her palm. After a second, there’s a spark and then magic is swirling at the end of Justin’s fingertip, following his movements as he traces patterns across Alex’s skin. She lifts her head up and stares in amazement._

_“What’s that?”_

_Justin glances over at her and smiles. “Your dad calls it ‘magic chasing’. It happens sometimes to young wizards who are close, before they have complete control of their powers. It’s my magic reacting to yours. It started happening a few months ago whenever I got too close to you, like physically, but it’s actually really easy to control. I just think about it,” the spark of magic disappears, “and it settles down.”_

_Alex grins, “That feels so cool. When my magic starts to do that, I’m going to have to show you what it feels like. It almost tickles.” Her grin falters and her eyes grow sad. “Well, I will if we can manage to fix this.”_

_“Hey now.” Justin ducks his head so he can meet Alex’s lowered gaze. “We’ll fix this. We’ve managed to fix everything else that’s been thrown at us.”_

_“That I got us into you mean.” Alex interjects._

_“That’s been thrown at us.” Justin repeats firmly before giving Alex a small grin. “Some of which you may have helped to...facilitate. The point is, we’ve made it through all of those things and we’ll make it through this too. Now come on, we should get some sleep. We’re going to need it for tomorrow. I have a feeling that,” he holds up his hand and adopts a fairly terrible British accent, “one does not simply walk in to get the Stone of Dreams.”_

_Alex bursts into laughter, shoving Justin playfully. “You are such a dork!”_

_Justin raises his eyebrows and Alex ducks her head again, still chuckling. “But I do feel a little better.” She looks back up at him and smiles. “Thanks.”_

_“No problem.” Justin smiles back. “But really, we should get some sleep.”_

_They settle down and Alex turns so that she’s facing her friend. “Thank you.” She whispers softly. “For being here even though you don’t have to be.”_

_Justin smiles again and reaches out to give her hand a reassuring squeeze. “You’re my best friend, Alex. I’m not letting time take you away from me.”_

Sarah waves her wand again and the bubble vanishes, taking the other Alex and Justin with it.

“Huh, would you look at that.” Alex grins over at her Justin. “We’re apparently best friends.”

But Justin has his thinking face on and doesn’t answer her. He’s silent for a minute before turning to look back at Sarah. “But wait...if everything that happened in that timeline essentially happened in this timeline then what was the point?”

At this, Sarah shifts awkwardly. “Um, well, okay. This is going to be weird, but bear with me. The reason that the Alex and Justin from the other timeline ended up in their own version of the resistance was because, well, because they were together. Like _together_ together.”

The meaning of what she’s saying hits them both at the same time.

“What?”

Sarah nods. “Yeah. They were, are –whatever- together. And that Alex decided she wanted to give the family powers to her brother, Max, because he’d always wanted to do magic, even as his backup plan, and she had other ambitions outside of magic. But, well, you guys know the rules. Except there was no one for Justin to give his powers to since he’s an only child and both of his parents had passed away, so they started looking for loop holes. Instead they found out some pretty nasty things about the Wizard World and the Wizard Council and they decided to fight against it.”

“So wait,” Alex holds up a hand to get Sarah’s attention. “If the Wizard Council always knew Justin wasn’t actually a Russo...what were they planning to do for our competition? It would have been kind of obvious if it ended and at least two of us still had powers.”

Sarah rolls her eyes. “Honestly, it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. They were planning on making sure that either you or Max won the competition and then someone –I think it was supposed to be Professor Crumbs- was going to “conveniently” retire and “give” Justin his powers, but really just let him keep his own. And they’re planning on giving Justin that person’s job. Which, actually that part isn’t stupid. One of the better ways to keep Justin from trying to take down the system would be to make him a part of it. But still,” She shakes her head. “The whole thing is ridiculous. This whole system is ridiculous. Like, did you know that the Wizard Competition isn’t normal? In any sense?”

Justin shakes his head. “I mean, I kind of suspected it after hearing Logan’s story. But you know that for sure?”

“Yeah.” She nods again. “It was something that I saw the alternate Alex and Justin start to learn about, so I looked into it more myself. The power transfer machine? It’s made from a rare crystal that Harry Whodunit used to take his brother’s powers from him. Before that, siblings just shared the power. I think it was supposed to be a like a built in safety feature. You had the power to do most stuff, but for the really big stuff you needed another wizard to pull it off, which meant another mind to bounce the idea off of. You both know that most of the spells that require full wizard powers are dangerous. That’s one of the reasons almost all wizard families have more than one child. And why the dampening spell exists for the few only child wizards that exist. Whodunit established the Wizard’s Council, decided that Wizards were superior to all other races, and realized that he could keep his control if he gave the wizards something else to focus on besides what was actually happening in the Wizard World.”

“So he created the Wizard Competition!” Justin says, eyes widening as the dots connect for him.

“Exactly. If wizard families kept their attention turned inward, if families were turned against one another, then they’d be too busy to turn against the Wizard’s Council.”

Alex grins. “So Justin’s plan to destroy the transfer machine is a good one!”

Sarah blinks in shock. “You found a way to successfully destroy the transfer machine.” At Justin’s nod, a matching grin slides over her face. “That’s amazing! I know how much it would mean to you to end this whole thing civilly, and this might be enough to do it.”

Justin’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. “Really?”

“Yes!” Sarah is nodding so enthusiastically that her hair is bouncing itself out of its bun. “The Wizard Competition is really the only strong hold the Wizard’s Council has over anyone. And they’re old and they don’t have the drive or ambition in them that Whodunit did. The fight is mostly out of those guys at this point. The destruction of the transfer machine and the exposing of their schemes would probably be enough to get them to back down.”

“Oh my god!” Justin grin is blinding and Alex feels her own grin widening in response. “This is amazing! We could actually do this!”

“Of course you could.” The older wizard shakes her head. “The thing about prophecies that the Wizard Council never bothered to understand is that they have a way of coming true even when you try your hardest to stop them. They’re so used to tearing families apart with the competition that they forget about how strong they can be when they stand together. Even when you thought you were Alex’s brother and you’d have to fight her for the right to your powers, wouldn’t you have done anything you could to help her?”

“Of course.” Justin says, without a moment’s hesitation, and Alex knows that he’s thinking of her mural on the school wall, and talking cabs, and guinea pig parents/professors, and almost never existing, and a million other little things that would take Alex too long to name.

“And Alex?” Sarah turns to face her. “Wouldn’t you have done anything to help Justin? Even before all this?”

“Well, I mean...I guess. If it was really important.”

Justin sticks his tongue out at her and she sticks hers back out at him. Sarah laughs. “See? Prophecies will happen whether you want them to or not.” She turns to Justin. “I mean, it didn’t play out exactly the way it was supposed, but you still ended up here because of Alex.” 

“Me?” Alex shakes her head. “No, I’m here because of Justin. He’s the one who ran off and found you guys.”

“Oh.” Sarah shifts, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “Right.”

Alex stares at the other witch, using her best intimidation face, but aside from fidgeting uncomfortably, Sarah remains silent. Alex turns her gaze to Justin instead, but he’s looking down at his hands and he’s holding unnaturally still, which means he’s trying to avoid her gaze. “What is she talking about Justin?” Alex can almost feel the light bulb go off over her head as she connects her own dots. “You said I wasn’t the reason you left! You lied!” 

Justin still doesn’t say anything, but he does at least meet her eyes and he looks guilty. This just makes her madder. “You wouldn’t even talk to me about why you left, but you went and told _Sarah_!”

“No!” Justin is starting to look frantic and she wants to feel bad about that, but she’s too angry right now. “No! I never told anyone why I left.”

“He didn’t.” Sarah rushes to explain. “He really didn’t. I’ve just...I was assigned by the Wizard Council to keep an eye on you guys when they realized about the prophecies. I’ve been checking in on you guys for most of your life. It’s actually the reason the Wizard Council believes me when I tell them Justin is here exploring Italy before he potentially loses his powers and it becomes harder to do. And that you’re here because you thought he had the right idea and wanted to try that too. I just...kind of figured it out. Or assumed I did. I’m sorry!” Her last statement is directed at Justin who is looking a little pale. “I thought you would have told her. I thought she would have made you tell her.”

“I’m about to!” Alex leaps to her feet, waving her arms around wildly. “You...you, ugh! I told you all about how awful it was for me when you left and you...you said it didn’t have anything to do with me.

“Technically I, uh, I just said I didn’t leave because of something you did.”

Alex lets out a shriek of annoyance and picks up the nearest thing she can grab –a truly ugly decorative pillow from the couch- and begins whacking Justin with it as hard as she can. He brings his hands up to defend himself and he’s definitely saying her name, but she doesn’t care, she’s going to get the truth out of him even if she has to beat it out with this stupid pillow.

“You. Lied. To. Me!”

“Hey, that’s enough!” Sarah’s voice is sharp and her tone is just enough like her mom’s to make Alex pause in what she’s doing. “Listen, I’m going to get out of here, because this is obviously something that’s just between the two of you, but you aren’t going to get anywhere by hitting each other.” She stands and fixes them both with a stern glare. “So sit down and _talk_ to each other.” She turns to face Justin. “She deserves to know the truth. Whether I’m right about what I think that truth is or not.” She sighs and then she’s gone, leaving Alex and Justin in a flash of light.

Alex doesn’t sit down, but she does drop the pillow in favor of crossing her arms and glaring. “Well?”

Justin sighs and drops his head into his head. “Please,” he’s begging her, actually begging. “ _Please_ can we not talk about this?”

Alex can’t remember a day in her life where Justin has ever begged for anything. Even when he’d wanted something as a kid he’d always come to their parents with a well thought out argument about why he should get what he wanted. Something around Alex’s heart pulls and she sighs, uncrossing her arms and moving to sit down on the sofa again. “Why didn’t you want me to know?”

Justin peeks at her from between his fingers. “I didn’t want anyone to know.” He says finally, sounding miserable. “But you especially. I didn’t want you to hate me.”

“Hate you? Why would I hate you?”

“You’re really going to make me tell you?” At Alex’s look he sighs again. “Fine. Remember when we were on vacation and we had to have the wizard competition and you won?”

Alex’s draws in a shaky breath. “Yes.” She will never be able to forget that, no matter how hard she tries.

“Remember how after you won, I forgot you? Which I always thought was because I didn’t have my powers anymore but I guess it was just bad timing? Or good timing? I’m not really sure which one you’d say-”

“Justin,” Alex cuts off his rambling. “I remember that.”

“Well I don’t. Not very well anyways. I remember you winning and I remember congratulating you and telling you I knew you could do it, but then it all gets kind of hazy. There was...you were upset about something and you said that you were my sister and,” his eyebrows scrunch together as he tries to recall the fuzzy memories, “and something about us loving each other no matter what and I...” He trails off, looking back down at this hands.

“And you?” Alex prompts.

“When you said you were my little sister, it didn’t, I don’t know, resonate with me. It didn’t feel like any kind of truth that I was supposed to just know. Which wouldn’t have been a big deal given that I’d just lost my memories but...but Alex. When you said I loved you no matter what I-I felt that. In every part of me that could feel that. My head. My heart. My magic. All of it was just like _yes. We do. Always._ ”

“W-Well that’s, that’s just what big brothers do.”

Justin shakes his head. “But I _wasn’t_ your big brother.” Now that he’s finally talking about it, the words seemed to be rushing out of him and Alex realizes he's been carrying this secret around for actual years. “Not then. To me you were just this girl who was upset, who needed me to stay and I knew, inherently, that I wouldn’t be able to leave you. No matter what. And then you fixed everything and I couldn’t...I tried to put you back into that little sister box. I tried _so hard_ , Alex. And I just _couldn’t_.” 

Alex feels her eyes widen in shock as the meaning of Justin’s words sinks in. He’s looking a strange combination of guilty and like he’s going to throw up and Alex suddenly understands why he wanted to keep his secret. Understands that she shouldn’t have pushed so much. But she did and now she has to deal with the consequences.

“At first I thought it was just, like, a side effect of everything that had happened. Of all that tension from thinking we might not exist and then forgetting that you were my sister. So I just tried to put some distance between us until things got back to normal. And I had Juliet. I really did love her. I thought she was going to be enough, she _was_ going to be enough. But then she and Mason had that fight and I lost her. And it still hadn’t gone away. It had been months at that point and I was still...it hadn’t changed. And I-well I thought I was- your big brother. I was supposed to protect you and here I was, doing pretty much the opposite of that.” He flexes his fingers, frowning down at his hands. “I knew I needed to leave. So I started planning. I learned how to split my magic and leave it behind so I wouldn’t even have to come back for the wizard competition.” He looks up to face her again, his expression helpless. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I’m sorry.”

Alex just sits there silently. She’s pretty sure she’s in shock and she doesn’t know how to even begin processing everything she’s just been told. Justin must mistake her silence for something other than confusion though, because his frown deepens and he stands up quickly.

“Listen, I know you probably don’t want anything to do with me and that’s-that’s fine,” He doesn’t sound like it’s fine, but Alex still can’t find her voice. “And I know I’ve got no right to ask you this now, but I think I know the best way to get in to destroy the transfer machine but I...I’ll need your help. But if you help me, I swear you’ll never have to see me again if you don’t want to. Just...just think about it, _please_.”

And he’s out the door and gone before Alex has a chance to say anything. Assuming she had any idea what to say in the first place. Which, for the record, she doesn’t. Her head is buzzing and her magic is doing this weird thing where it feels like it’s churning restlessly in her veins, so she grabs the ugly pillow and hugs it to her. She tries not think at all, about anything, but especially not about how Justin had rushed out so quickly after he’d finished talking that he’d nearly smacked into the door on his way out. She’s never really liked to think about Justin leaving her and this is no exception. 

Even if she’s not sure what else it is.

~

Alex doesn’t see Justin for the next two days. Partially because her thoughts are still a jumbled mess and she has no idea what to say to him, but mostly because Justin is doing his best to avoid her. She knows that everyone can tell that something happened, at least the people that are at the headquarters regularly can, and she also knows they’re trying to be polite and not mention it. She’s sure they’re all super curious to know what’s going on. She and Justin have been, not attached at the hip exactly, but close enough to it since she got here that it must be pretty weird to see them actively avoiding each other.

The problem –aside from the fact that Alex can’t seem to find Justin even if she wanted to- is that Alex knows she has to be sure of something before she talks to him. Because whatever they actually are to each other, they were raised as brother and sister and that’s left something on them that isn’t just going to go away overnight. She knows why this secret had been weighing down on Justin and she knows she isn’t mad or disgusted, but she isn’t sure exactly what she is and she thinks that when she does finally get the chance to talk to him, she needs to be sure of what’s going on in her head.

Her heart might take a while, but if she can just get her head on straight, then she can fix this.

She’s drawn into the living room of the headquarters that evening by the sound of the guitar and someone singing. She’s surprised to find Logan, Erin, Jamie, Sarah, and Natasha, are all lounging around the room, singing along as Justin plays a song on his guitar. Alex recognizes the song and she can’t help but smile.

“ _Do you believe in magic, in a young girl’s heart_?”

Natasha, a petite red-headed former wizard who had wowed Alex her first week here with her insane gymnastic abilities (this girl can literally do back flips and Alex has never seen it, but Natasha had confided to her that she does pole dancing for fun and exercise) catches her eye and smiles, making her way over to where Alex is leaning against the door frame and smiling. “Hey.” She says, loud enough that Alex can hear her, but soft enough that it doesn’t interrupt the music and draw attention to them. “Haven’t seen you around much.”

Alex returns her smile. “Hey. Yeah, I’m sorry about.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Natasha dismisses her apology with a wave of her hand. “This place can be hectic. Everyone needs some time to themselves occasionally.”

“Thanks. But what’s going on here?”

“Jam session.” Natasha laughs. “Well, more like Justin plays the guitar and everyone else sings along. It doesn’t happen much, but Sarah loves music, so when she’s here we always make sure to take some time to relax and make a little music.”

“I haven’t heard Justin really play the guitar in years.” Alex smiles at little wistfully. “Not since we decided we were going to start a band as our back up plan if we didn’t win the Wizard competition.”

Natasha raises an eyebrow. “You guys made your back up plan together? What if one of you had won?”

Alex blinks in shock. The thought had honestly never occurred to her before. “I...I don’t know. I guess we didn’t think about that.”

She laughs again. “You guys are something else, you know that? I’ve met a lot of wizard siblings before, but you guys are definitely the most unique. You know, back when you guys still thought you were siblings.”

“Yeah, well,” Alex shrugs, “I guess we’ve always kind of had a complicated relationship. Well, not so complicated really. We picked on each other and teased each other and sometimes we were down right mean to each other but...but Justin’s always had my back when it was really important. I guess I just trusted that it would be the same after the wizard competition. He probably did too.”

“You guys were lucky then.” Natasha’s smile falters a little and Alex knows she’s thinking of her own brother, who had won the wizard competition a few years back. “Not all wizard siblings have that.”

“Yeah.” Alex can’t help the grin that spreads across her face or the warmth that pools low in her stomach as something clicks into place for her. “I am.”

Natasha sends her another small smile, before heading back over to the sit on the arm of the chair that Logan is currently occupying. The atmosphere is warm and light in the living room, everyone smiling and laughing as they sing and Alex is glad that she’s here to see it. She makes her way over to the couch, taking the empty spot next to Justin. He turns at the sudden shift on the couch and his eyes widen when he sees her, but she has to give him credit, because he doesn’t miss a beat with his guitar playing, which is probably for the best because Erin and Sarah are still singing. She sends him tentative smile.

“ _Believe in the magic that can set you free_.” She sings softly, because the Justin she remembers has always been easily spooked, even when it’s something important on the line.

But this new Justin (it’s been months but she can’t help it-how she sometimes still thinks of him as a new Justin), just returns her smile with a small smile of his own. “ _Ohhh, talking ‘bout magic_.”

The song ends shortly after that and the sound of Justin’s guitar fades into silence. The silence only lasts for a second before Erin actually squeals from where she’s seated on the other side of Justin. “Oh yay! Alex is here!” She leans forward so she can give Alex a wide grin. “Justin says you’re a great singer!” She turns back around and slaps Justin playfully on the arm. “You know what song we have to do next!” She says and this time her grin is a little wolfish.

“No way.” Justin shakes his head, laughing a little. “I am not giving Alex that kind of ammunition.”

Alex perks up at the mention of potential embarrassment. No matter how old they get, or how close, she will always be a fan of teasing Justin. Before she can say anything though, Erin beats her to it, actually sending a (okay, pretty adorable) puppy dog pout in Justin’s direction.

“Come on!” She coaxes. “It’s a group effort anyways.”  
  
“Yeah, but she won’t be teasing any of you for the rest of your natural born lives.”

“Only because Jaime and I are going to outlive you guys! Come on, Justin! That song is my favorite! And it’s Sarah’s favorite too!”

“Yeah.” Sarah chimes in, with a poorly hidden smirk, which makes Alex doubt very much that what she’s saying is actually true. “It’s my favorite.”

Justin glares at them and Alex cracks up. “Come on, Justin.” She nudges him playfully. “I promise not to laugh. And it’s for Sarah after all.”

“Please?” Erin begs, her hands clasped together.

“Yeah, please Justin.” Logan’s also got his hands clasped together, but he isn’t even trying to disguise the laughter in his voice.

“Fine.” Justin rolls his eyes and shifts, adjusting his guitar. “But not a word from you.” He warns Alex, who is too busy trying to hide her gleeful smile to do anything but nod. “I hate all of you.” He grumbles, but he’s already started plucking at the strings of his guitar and the corners of his mouth keep twitching up so no one takes him very seriously.

“ _Friday night, date night. I say pick out what you like. I don’t care as long as you’re here._ ”

Alex immediately has to clamp a hand over her mouth as Justin sings. He’s not a bad singer by any means, but this is going to be a gooey love song, she can already tell, and that’s hilarious. But she promised not laugh and she kind of wants to see this whole group effort thing Erin was talking about so she keeps quiet. Besides, if everyone’s grins are anything to go by, then this is going to be a pretty good time.

“ _Surprise, surprise, ain’t that nice. Same old chick flick eighteenth time. You know the one with that guy._ ”

Alex is just about to wonder where the group effort part comes in, when everyone starts to clap in time to the beat. They’ve obviously done this before and Alex kind of loves it.

_“Half way through,_ ” Justin continues to sing and already Alex has picked up on the tempo and has joined everyone else in clapping, “ _look at you smiling like you always do and I can’t help but just stare. ‘Cause suddenly it hits me as I watch you make believe, I want to make this your reality. And if you’ll be my leading lady, even though I may look crazy..._ ”

Everyone joins in on the chorus, except for Alex who doesn’t know the words, but as soon as the chorus ends, everyone goes back to just clapping and Justin takes back over singing. “ _Now I’ve never been one of them guys who could be leading men. Just never seemed all that real_.”

“Well, you’re like five six.” Natasha quips.

“So is Tom Cruise.” Sarah replies, without missing a beat.

“True.” Natasha concedes and as Justin starts singing again Alex realizes that this is part of the song. _This_ is apparently what Erin had meant by group effort and Alex is beyond here for this.

“ _But here right now with you, somehow, the kind of love they write about, is the kind of love that I’m starting to feel._ ”

This time, when everyone starts singing the chorus, Alex joins them. Justin turns to face Erin as the chorus gets to the end. “ _I promise if you let me,_ ”

“Whatcha gonna do?” Erin asks playfully, wiggling her eyebrows and making a ridiculous face.

“ _I’ll love you like the movies._ ”

Erin turns to Jamie. “I’ll never let go, Jamie, I’ll never let go.”

Jamie turns to Logan. “If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.”

Logan strikes as dramatic of a pose as he can while he’s still sitting in his seat. “You had me at ‘hello’.” He waves his hand and from seemingly nowhere, the sound of drums starts accompanying Justin’s guitar playing and Alex makes a mental note to see if she can get an actual set of drums in here for the next jam session. It would be fun to play again.

“ _Like Noah loved Ally. Like Harry loved Sally. Like Richard love Julia._ (“Twice!” Sarah adds.) _Like Tom loved Meg. And the way he loved that volleyball_. (“WILSON!” Everyone yells dramatically and Alex breaks her promise at that, almost falling over in her laughter.) _The way Demi Moore loved that ghost._ (“Weird.” Natasha raises an eyebrow.) _The way Jack loved Rose._ (“What?” Logan asks.) _I’ll never let go, never let go! (“_ Was he talking about a ghost?” Sarah sounds skeptical, which is hilarious because Alex knows for a fact that everyone in this room has interacted with ghosts at least once.) _Never let go.”_ And then Sarah raises her hand and points in Justin’s general direction, magic dancing at her fingertips. “ _I’ll never let go!”_

Alex blinks in shock as Justin reaches a pitch that she didn’t think he was physically capable of reaching. Probably not even before puberty hit him when he was thirteen (his voice started cracking the same day his magic had come in so he’d had to walk around in that ridiculous hat and squeaking like a little mouse with every other word. As far as Alex is concerned it was pretty much the most hilarious thing ever). “Dude, are you alright?”

Everyone cracks up at Alex’s question and Erin leans over so she can beam at Alex from around Justin. “You already know the words!”

“I think so.” Justin gives her a sheepish grin. “ _Uh,”_ He gives a fake little cough. “ _If you’ll be my leading lady._ (“It just seemed like it hurt.” Logan says, winking at Alex and she realizes she must have said the next line of the song by accident. “It was very high.”) _Even though I may look crazy..._ ”

“Key change?” Jamie asks.

“Nah, I don’t want to.” Erin answers.

“I feel like we should do a key change.” Sarah supplies and this is honestly like a musical tennis match and Alex loves it. She could never make fun of any of them for doing this because she kind of wants to be in on it.

“Okay!” Natasha and Erin both agree.

Logan’s magic drums pick up again and Erin gets up as the chorus starts once. She pulls Jaime up from where she’s seated on the floor by the couch and the two start dancing. Natasha is swaying from where she’s still seated on the arm of Logan’s chair and Logan bobs his head in time with the beat. Sarah grins and keeps clapping in time with the beat.

“ _I’ll grab your hand ask you to dance in the middle of the street._ ” Everyone sings, Alex included (thank goodness for repetitive chorus’). “ _Learn to sign cheesy lines like ‘Baby, you complete me’. And in case you forget where we’ve been or what we did, I’ll write all down. Read it out loud. Again and again._ ”

The chorus changes and everyone else goes with it, but at Alex’s silence, Justin turns to face her. He must realize she just doesn’t know the words, because he smiles again and bumps his shoulder against hers gently so he doesn’t mess up his guitar playing. “ _Close your eyes, arms out wide, ‘I’m the king of the world’. Carpet rides, starry nights,_ ” His grin widens and Alex knows he must be thinking about teaching her to fly the family magic carpet. She can’t help the grin the slides across her face at the memory.

“ _There’s no way I don’t kiss the girl_.”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Justin’s eyes widen and his whole face turns an impressive shade of red. He immediately turns around to face the empty space on his other side where Erin had been before she started dancing and Alex is pretty sure the only reason he keeps playing the guitar is pure muscle memory.

But Alex isn’t really bothered by some line in a silly love song. Maybe it should bother her, maybe the whole situation should bother her, but mostly she just misses the way that Justin had been grinning at her a second ago. She wants that back and the confusion she’d felt the past few days is gone, replaced by the desire to avoid any more awkward silences. She just wants Justin back and for things to go back to normal. Or, well, they probably can’t be normal but she realizes suddenly that none of that matters. She’ll find a new normal with him if that’s what it takes.

So when the song ends and everyone starts cheering, she grabs Justin’s arms and tugs, forcing him to turn and face her. “Next time we do this, I’m going to conjure up a drum set and we totally have to play _Make It Happen_.”

Justin must recognize the olive branch, because his eyes do that thing where they go soft and he smiles at her and nods. Even though Alex knows she still wants to talk to him about everything, just a little, just to clear the air, she’s glad that he isn’t looking spooked anymore and that they can enjoy the rest of the night without it being awkward.

“Okay!” Logan announces, clapping his hands together to get everyone’s attention, “who’s got the next song suggestion?”

Erin, Natasha, and Sarah all call out song suggestions, but Alex waits until there’s silence to smile. “Okay, but has Justin ever played the first song he ever learned for you?” She grins. “He played it so much that Max hid his guitar for like two weeks in a void he opened up in the lair.”

Justin chuckles as everyone else shakes their head. “In my defense, I’m pretty sure if you can play the guitar you are required by law to know how to play this song.”

“Yeah, but fifty times in a week?”

Justin blushes a little and shrugs. “It was my first song. I was excited.”

“You should definitely play it!” Erin says grinning.

Sarah nods. “We have to hear Justin’s first song.”

“Okay,” Justin grins. “ _Time of Your Life_ it is.”

And as the opening cords of the song fill the room, Alex smiles. The time of her life, indeed.

~

“Hey.”

Justin turns his head from where he’d been looking up at the stars and sends her a smile. “Hey.” He slides over on the bench to make room for her.

Everyone else has gone to bed, but after Justin had put his guitar away he’d made his way to the front porch and Alex had debated for a few seconds before following him. “I’m sorry.” She says as she sits down next to him.

He raises his eyebrows. “What are you sorry for?”

“For the other day. I shouldn’t have just sat there in silence like that.”

Justin shakes his head. “No. You don’t have to apologize. I shouldn’t have...I should have just made something up. You shouldn’t have had to deal with me dumping that on you like that.”

“No!” Alex turns to face him, her voice firm. “No. I’m glad you told me the truth. You shouldn’t have to deal with stuff like that on your own. This thing that the Wizard Council did to you is messed up and I’m sorry that it made things hard for you. I’m sorry that I made things hard for you. Even if it was an accident.”

He smiles at her, small but warm. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything but be your usual charming self.”

Alex laughs lightly. “Oh please. We both know I am not exactly charming most of the time.” Her expression turns serious again. “But look, I should have come to talk to you sooner instead of avoiding you.”

“Well,” Justin shrugs, “It’s not exactly like I went around looking for you. So I’d say we’re even there.”

“Still...I wish I’d come to find you sooner. Justin, you’re one of the most important people in my life. You’ve _always_ been there and I don’t ever want to think about what it would be like to have you not be there. We never really talked about it, about that vacation, but the worst thing that happened that whole trip was when you looked at me after the competition like I was a stranger. Everything that went wrong on that trip, all the things that fell apart, and it never seemed really bad until that time tornado thing took you and I thought I was losing you forever. And when you actually did leave, everything was worse. Even my magic didn’t feel right.” She shakes her head. “I know we can’t exactly go back to normal, but I-well, we can find a new normal, can’t we?”

Justin is silent for a few seconds before nodding. “Yeah. Of course we can.” He slides an arm around her shoulder and gives her a quick hug. “Thank you.”

Alex lets her head rest on Justin’s shoulder and is glad when he doesn’t remove his arm. It should probably be weird, but it’s just a warm and solid reminder that Justin is here and he isn’t going anywhere. “I don’t want to lose you.” She admits quietly.

“You won’t.” Justin tells her firmly. “I mean it. I don’t have any more secrets to keep from you anyways. And even if I did, I don’t think I could ever completely walk away from you.”

“I’m glad you told me. I’m glad you don’t have to deal with all of that alone.” Something occurs to her and she sits up suddenly, the movement dropping Justin’s arm back to his side. “Oh! I almost forgot. You said you had a plan for getting to the transfer machine!”

Justin nods. “Yeah. I need to ask Dad a few things to make sure it will definitely work and we’ll need Max’s help too, so we’ll have to talk to him, but if things work the way I’m thinking they do then I actually have a pretty solid plan.”

“Well,” Alex raises an eyebrow at him. “Are you going to tell me?”

“Of course.” Justin chuckles at her eagerness. “We know how to get to the power transfer machine and we know what kind of traps and alarms they have set up, so we can disarm them easily enough, but I still think it would be safest to make sure the Wizard Council is distracted by something while all of this is happening. Just in case.”

Alex grins. “I’m assuming you’ve got a distraction in mind?”

He shrugs, trying to look casual, but his smile is too excited for him to even kind of pull it off. “Well, Max’s eighteenth birthday is coming up in a couple of months. And as soon as he turns eighteen we’re supposed to have our Wizard Competition.” Alex nods in understanding. “And maybe we just...don’t exactly play by the rules. And once the Wizard Council shows up to sort it out, maybe I casually mention that I shouldn’t even be there anyways. What with me not having to share my family wizard powers with anyone.”

Alex grins. “That would definitely get their attention.”

“And while we distract them by telling them everything we know, some of the others can sneak in and get to the power transfer machine to destroy it.”

“You know, I like when you use your genius for evil.”

“Technically, I think this still qualifies as using my genius for good.”

“Shhhh,” Alex chides playfully as she shifts to rest her head on his shoulder again, “don’t ruin it.”

He chuckles again and slips his arm back around her shoulder, but he doesn’t say anything else. They sit on the bench and watch the stars together in silence for a few minutes before Alex speaks again.

“It’s a good plan.”

“If we can pull it off.”

“We will.” She says firmly. “And Max will help us. Everything will be okay and we will change the Wizard World for the better.”

“Yeah?”

Alex nods. “Yeah. I mean, it’s you and I.”

“How could we not.” He finishes for her and she hasn’t stopped looking at the stars, but she can hear the warmth in his voice and she knows what his expression would be if turned her gaze to face him.

“Exactly.”

There’s a certainty in her that Alex can’t quite explain, but she remembers what the other Justin, from the other timeline, had said in the few seconds she’d seen been able to see them. About how he and his Alex had always come out on top of everything that life and magic had thrown at them and it’s been the same in this timeline. Every time she and Justin have worked together, things have always turned out okay and they’ve always made it through.

There’s no reason that this should be any different.

~

Christmas is Vernazza is surprisingly quiet.

Max’s birthday is next month and everyone has been busy putting the final touches on their plan, so the headquarters has been fairly hectic. But once the holiday rolls around, Justin insists that everyone go home and spend time with whatever friends or family they’d left behind for this, because even though they’re all pretty confident this will go off without a hitch, if something does go wrong, they have no way of knowing what the fallout will be. Justin opts to stay in Italy, saying he doesn’t want to leave the headquarters empty and Alex chooses to stay with him for reasons she refuses to look too closely at.

They spend the morning chatting with their parents and Max through the Abrakadoodler and the afternoon wandering the streets of Vernazza. Most of the businesses are closed for the season, winter is not a big time for tourists, but the locals have all decorated their homes and it’s nice to be able to wander around and take in how beautiful the small town really is. They even run into Mrs. Mancini, who hands them two beautifully decorated gingerbread men cookies, even though her bakery is closed for the holiday.

“ _Buon Natale, patatinos_!”

Honestly, Mrs. Mancini is such an adorable little old lady that it’s hard for Alex to even care that she affectionately calls them both “little potato”. Also, she makes seriously delicious baked goods and is always ready to hand Alex a little taste of whatever she’s just baked.

They spend the evening wrapped up in a cocoon of blankets on the floor in the living room watching all of their favorite Christmas movies. Alex makes them their mother’s Mexican hot chocolate recipe (they aren’t technically Mexican, but it’s the same hot chocolate recipe their mom has been making them since they were little so whatever) and Justin charms the windows to make it look like it’s snowing outside and it’s cozy and pretty much perfect.

Alex falls asleep sometime during _A Year Without a Santa Claus_ and when she wakes up a few hours later, the room is dark save for the faint glow coming from Justin’s charmed windows. She rolls over and smiles when she finds Justin stretched out next her, sleeping peacefully. She takes the chance to study him in the dim light. He looks so much younger when he’s sleeping. Leading a resistance, even one that plans to accomplish their goals peacefully, is definitely a stressful job and the closer they’ve gotten to actually putting their plan into motion, the more stressed Justin had been getting. This is the first time in several weeks that she’s seen him without that little crease between his eyebrows or looking like his mind is going at a hundred miles a minute, planning for every worst case scenario and then some. She knows he stresses about what they’re going to do after everything is over, if the plan is successful. And about everything that could happen to everyone if it’s not. She also knows he hasn’t been sleeping as much as he should, too busy checking and rechecking and rechecking that everything is exactly right.

So this is nice and something tugs in her chest at the sight of him looking so peaceful and relaxed. She reaches a hand out, letting her fingers ghost along his jaw line. He hasn’t shaved today or yesterday so there’s a fair amount of stubble and it’s crazy to her, how much he’s actually a grown man and not just the nerdy boy he seemed to be just a little while ago.

Her fingertips start to tingle and her eyes widen in shock as little golden sparks of magic jump to the surface of her fingers, following their movement up Justin’s face. She stares in amazement for a few seconds before she recognizes what she’s seeing.

“ _Magic chasing,_ ” the other Justin had called it, to another Alex in another timeline. “ _It happens sometimes to young wizards who are close_.”

She watches as the magic follows her movements, dancing across Justin’s skin and thinks about how she’d gotten Sarah to teach her the spell to view the alternate timeline before the other wizard had left to head back to work. About how she’d spent several hours over the course of the past month watching how the story unfolded for a Justin and Alex who had never thought they were related. Who had always just been friends. She thinks about how that Alex and Justin had always gravitated towards each other. About how that Justin had practiced his guitar in secret for months so he could surprise his Alex on her birthday with a rendition of her favorite song. About how they’d been in the Caribbean and he’d kissed her before giving her his powers since time had taken Max away before they could have the competition to try and fix everything. How that Alex had had to use the Stone of Dreams to rewind time so her Justin hadn’t remembered, but how she’d replayed the memory over and over again after they’d gotten home. She thinks about the other Alex overhearing Juliet mention that she wanted to ask Justin to the Ladies’ Choice dance and how that had _finally_ spurred her into taking action when it came to her feelings for her best friend. How it had come down to Justin having to choose between Juliet and Alex and how he’d barely even had to think about it before choosing Alex.

But mostly she thinks about the looks on their faces when they’d realized that Alex giving up her powers to Max means they wouldn’t be able to be together. They hadn’t looked heartbroken or devastated. They’d just looked determined and sure and ready to take on the world together in order to find the loophole that would let them stay together. They’d just looked confident and happy and ridiculously in love with each other.

Which shouldn’t make her think about _her_ Justin and their adventures: about how he’d always been there, always forgiven her when she’d gone a step too far, always had her back when things went wrong. About how even when he'd looked at her like she was a stranger, he'd promised to never leave, without even the slightest bit of hesitation. About how when he _had_ left her, he'd done it because he'd thought it was the best way to protect her. As if she would ever need to be protected from him. But it does. Because she has _always_ loved Justin fiercely, even when she didn’t like him very much.

Something in Alex’s heart catches and splits open.

“Oh,” she breathes out, giving quiet but startled laugh. “Figures Justin would realize it first. Guess that’s why he’s the smart one.”

Justin stirs in his sleep, either from Alex talking or the sensation of her magic on his skin and Alex smiles at him as he blinks his eyes open. “Alex?”

“Look!” She whispers excitedly, but as soon as she moves her hand away from his face, her magic fades away.

His face scrunches up in confusion. “Look at what?” He whispers back at her.

“Hold out your hand.” When he does as instructed, she raises her own hand up, letting her fingers hover in front of his palm. There’s a second of nothing and then she feels that same tingling in her fingertips before her magic sparks to life, swirling just over his skin.

He sucks in a sharp breath. “Is that...”

“Magic chasing.” Alex whispers, a smile slowly spreading across her face. 

“I didn’t think...well, I didn’t think that was something that would happen for us.”

“I know.” Alex pulls back her hand and Justin lets his drop. “That’s probably because I’m so late to the party.”

She watches as his eyebrows scrunch together as he tries to make sense of what she’s saying. “Alex what-” She also sees the exact moment he realizes what she means. “Alex...” he breathes out her name kind of like a wish and she smiles.

“Justin, you’re everything to me. And you’ve been everything to me for probably my whole life. But I always thought that was just how we were. I mean the universe almost took you away from me twice and I didn’t realize it. I didn’t figure it out until you had figured it out first. Which probably shouldn’t surprise me. I know I like to give you crap a lot, but I’ve always followed your lead when it comes to the really big stuff.”

“Alex, are you sure? Because this isn’t...you don’t have to...I know this isn’t normal.”

“Do you remember what you told me? Back when we lost Juliet and Mason? We aren’t normal. And we’re never going to be. And I honestly do not care. Now, you are going to shut up and you are going to kiss me, got it?”

Like most things, Justin does not need to be told twice. He leans in and kisses her softly, bringing one hand up to cradle her cheek. Her magic surges at the contact and she sighs happily as he shifts to deepen the kiss. Her magic buzzes just under her skin as she wraps her arms around his neck and her whole body feels alive and electric with it. It’s different than anything she’d felt with Dean or Riley or Mason and she gets it now, what Justin meant when he said he felt that he loved her in his magic.

Because her heart, her magic, her _everything_ are telling her that this perfect and exactly where she should be.

When they break apart a few seconds later she’s a little light headed, which is what she’ll blame for her next sentence if anyone ever asks her. “You are better at that then I thought you’d be.” She even sounds breathless, dammit!

Justin smirks at her. “Well, Juliet _was_ a couple hundred years old. She may have picked up some tricks that she shared with me.”

“You know, I’m not even mad that you just brought up your ex-girlfriend.”

His smirk widens. “That good huh?”

She laughs; her whole body light with how giddy she feels. “Well, maybe a little. But also it’s kind of hard to be mad about an ex-girlfriend when my magic is telling me I’m finally were I’m supposed to be.” She grabs his hand and laces their fingers together. “Here. With you. Like this.”

Justin leans forward to press his forehead against hers. “You’re my everything too.” He whispers. “Always.”

Alex sighs happily and snuggles closer to Justin. “Merry Christmas, _patatino_.”

Justin laughs loudly and wraps an arm around her waist to pull her closer. “Merry Christmas, _tesoro_.”

~

They make the trip back to Waverly Place a few days before Max’s birthday. She and Justin have already talked to Max a little bit about what they’re planning and, just like Alex predicted, he is more than happy to help. They still need to tell their parents everything that’s been going on, assuming Max hasn’t already told them. That part makes Alex a little nervous, she’s not really sure how enthusiastic her parents are going to be about the fact that all three of their children are planning on staging a revolution. She knows how much it kills her father that the Wizard Competition drove a wedge between himself and his siblings, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be okay with them trying to take over and rewrite the whole system. Especially since the fact that they have to destroy the transfer machine means that anyone who’s already lost their powers won’t be able to get them back.

Still though, even with all that looming over her head, she’s glad to be going back home and she knows that Justin feels the same.

Max must have gotten in touch with Harper, because her best friend is waiting for her in the apartment when they flash in. She’s wearing a light blue dress covered in koalas and there’s definitely a stuffed koala attached to the headband she’s wearing, with earrings that look like a bunch of dangling eucalyptus leaves and it’s probably the biggest crime against fashion that Alex has seen since she saw the last time she saw Harper, right before she ran off to Italy after Justin (that outfit was unicorn inspired with a headband with a matching unicorn horn), but it doesn’t matter because Alex loves Erin and Jamie and Natasha and all the girls at the resistance, but none of them are Harper.

“Alex!”

“Harper!”

Both girls give excited squeals as they throw themselves into a hug. Alex hears Zeke greeting Justin in their ridiculous alien language and she knows it’s been even longer since Justin saw his best friend, so she feels kind of bad that they’ll probably have to kick him out soon. There’s a lot going on and they still need to iron out the last few details of their plan with Max. Before she can even start to debate if there’s time to let the two of them catch up before getting down to business, Harper solves the dilemma by pulling back from the hug and telling her quietly:

“Max told me about everything that’s been going on,” _Not everything_ , Alex thinks to herself, because Max doesn’t even know everything and she’s not sure how anyone from home is going to take the news that she and Justin are dating, even if they all know that they aren’t actually related. “And when he told me about what you guys were doing and why you guys were doing it, well...” Her face turns serious. “If there’s anything I can do to help, you’ve got me. Max and I explained everything to Zeke too. So he knows about magic and the resistance and he wants to help. Even if it’s dangerous.”

Alex pulls Harper into another hug. “You are the best friend a girl could ask for. Hopefully, this will all be over in a few days and no one else will have to get involved. But thank you,” She smiles gratefully at her friend, “for always having my back.”

“Alright!” Alex turns at the sound of her dad’s voice. “Your mom and I closed the Sub Station early so that we could all spend some time together now that everyone’s back home. What do you guys want to do first?”

“Actually...” Justin glances over at Alex who gives him a reassuring nod. “We, uh, we need to tell you guys some things.” He sighs. “After I left I, well first I sort of traveled a little, but after about a month I met up with some friends I’d made and I...I joined a resistance group.”

“He’s actually the leader of the resistance.” Alex interjects.

Justin winces, like maybe he wasn’t planning on telling them that part, but doesn’t say anything to correct it so Alex knows he doesn’t actually care that much. “To be fair, I wasn’t when I first joined them. There kind of wasn’t a leader, honestly. I just happened to have the best planning and organizational skills and sort of unintentionally took the leadership role. Anyways, that’s not the point. The point is that there’s several wizards, former wizards, and other magical creatures who felt like the way the Wizard Council was running things wasn’t the best way and they told me some things that made me realize they were right.”

“And when Justin told me about it when he was here for my graduation, I knew that I couldn’t let him fight alone, so I left to join him.”

They alternate taking turns explaining what they’d learned and what they’ve been doing for the past year and by the time they finish, everyone (even Max who knew most of this story already) is staring at them in wide-eyed amazement.

“You’re...starting a revolution?” Jerry asks slowly, like he’s still trying to come to grips with everything.

“Is it going to be dangerous?” Theresa asks, her concern obvious in her tone.

“We’re hoping it won’t be.” Justin tries his best to reassure her. “Sarah, she’s the wizard who also works for the Council and has been getting us a lot of our information, is pretty sure that if we can destroy the transfer machine, the loss of that and the fact that we plan on exposing what’s been really going on to the rest of the Wizard World will convince them to back down.”

“And how you plan on doing that?” Jerry sounds skeptical, but not discouraging, which Alex will take as a win.

“Well, I’ve got a plan but first I need to ask you something. I know you don’t really remember all the stuff that went on during our vacation to the Caribbean, with the accidental wish Alex made, but to solve it we had our Wizard Competition early –or well, we thought we were, whatever- the point is, before we started you said it didn’t count if we didn’t try. Is that a rule for all the competitions or just that emergency one?”

Jerry shakes his head. “No that rule applies to the normal competition too.”

Justin nods. “Is the rule that you have to try to win or just that you have to try your best?”

Alex watches as her father’s forehead wrinkles in confusion and she can’t blame him. She’d probably given Justin the exact same expression when he’d first explained it to her. “They’re kind of the same thing, but I guess technically the rule only states you have to try your best. I think the _to win_ part is just implied.”

Justin grins. “Perfect. Implied means there’s loopholes we can use to our advantage.” At everyone’s (minus Alex and Max) blank look he grins sheepishly. “Sorry. There’s this former wizard in the resistance, Natasha. She works for a lawyer-”

“He’s this super hot blonde guy,” Alex chimes in happily, “and she’s totally in love with him.”

“Not particularly relevant,” Justin rolls his eyes, but his smile is affectionate, “but you’re not wrong. Anyways, she’s learned some stuff from him and one of the things she learned about was loopholes. The main part of the plan,” he continues, “is that a group of several resistance members are going to sneak into where the magic transfer machine is and destroy it. We’ve got a pretty up-to-date layout of the room and all the traps and alarms that are protecting it, so it should be easy enough for them to disable them and get to the machine safely.”

“But just to be safe,” Alex adds, “we figured we should do something to grab the Wizard Council’s attention and keep them distracted. That’s where the loophole comes in.” She grins, “And you’ve always said that we all work best when we work together so...”

“So we talked this over with Max already, but we thought we’d use the “try your best” loophole, to make the Wizard Competition a tie. Nothing in the rules technically says we can’t just try out best to tie.” Justin shrugs fairly nonchalantly considering they’re talking about overthrowing the wizard government. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just tell them that I know about the fact that I’m not really a Russo.” His eyes widen and turns to face Harper and Zeke, “Max, uh, Max told you that right?”

Harper and Zeke both nod. “Don’t worry man,” Zeke assures him, “Max told us. And it doesn’t change anything, you’re still my best friend.”

“Yeah!” Harper agrees cheerfully. “Doesn’t matter who you were supposed to be, you’re still Justin to us.”

“Okay, maybe I just don’t understand because it’s magic, but why would this council care that you aren’t a Russo?” Theresa asks.

“Because they’re the reason that I-that we all ended up thinking I was one. They put me here.”

“What?” Jerry’s jaw drops at the revelation. “Why would they do that?”

Justin sighs, running a hand down his face. “Because I, well Alex and I both, were born with a prophecy-”

“I’m sorry,” Harper interrupts, “but what?”

“Some wizards are born with prophecies,” Jerry explains, still staring at Justin and Alex in amazement, “it’s rare, really rare, but it happens. Generally to wizards who are meant to do really big things.”

Justin nods. “See, my real name should be Justin Delaney. My biological parents died when I was young and I was supposed to go live with a mortal couple they were close to that live down the street, Nate and Melissa.”

Theresa gaps in recognition. “I know them! They come into the shop all the time to eat.”

Alex smiles at her mom. “And Justin should have started coming with them and we were supposed to become friends. Best friends.” Harper makes a small noise and Alex laughs softly, “Well, except for Harper obviously.” Harper shoots her a wide smile, completely mollified. “There’s a whole other timeline where everything played out like it was supposed to. Sarah showed us part of it.”

“And in that other timeline, the other Justin and Alex found out the same stuff that we did about the Wizard Council and decided they needed to do something about it. They actually founded their resistance.”

“But,” Jerry is back to looking confused. “Why would the Wizard Council make you a Russo? That doesn’t seem like it would change anything. I mean, obviously it didn’t, but still, that’s a lot of magic for a plan that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, uh,” Justin looks uncomfortable for the first time since this conversation started and Alex knows he was the most nervous about bringing this part up to them.

“The other Alex and Justin,” Alex takes over the explanation because she’s always been better and about just forging ahead and not caring what other people think, “were together. Like romantically.” Everyone gives them shocked glances at that. Alex ignores them. “And I guess they didn’t know about that ‘you have to try’ rule, because she had planned on giving up her powers to the other Max. But then they found out about the whole rule that wizards can’t be with non-wizards and so they started looking for a loophole so they could stay together.”

Justin shoots her a grateful look and she gives him a small smile back. “But instead of loopholes, they just found all this evidence that the Wizard Council was corrupt so they decided to do something about it. I guess the Wizard Council thought that if they could make us, and everyone around us, think we were siblings, then we wouldn’t have a reason to go looking for loopholes. And I’m sure pitting us against each other and making us think we had to compete against one another to keep our magic served as a pretty good distraction too.”

“I’m...going to need a little time to process this.” Harper says after several moments of silence.

“Yeah.” Jerry agrees while everyone around them nods, “me too.”

“Yeah...” Alex gives them a shy smile.

“We kind of figured that.” Justin finishes. “I’m sorry about this.”

Theresa shakes her head. “Listen _mijos_ , this is... _a lot_ to digest, but if you think you’re doing what’s right, then we’re here for you. Always.”

Jerry nods. “You’re mother’s right. I think we can all agree that we need some time to take in everything, but we’re behind you. One hundred percent.”

Relief floods through Alex and she can tell from the look on Justin’s face that he feels the same way. Having their parents’ support doesn’t technically change anything, but it gives Alex a sense of comfort all the same. After everything is over and the dust has settled, she knows she and Justin will have to sit down and explain everything to them, about the magic chasing and how they’re together the same way the other Alex and Justin are together. And she still isn’t completely sure how well that’s going to go over. So for now, it’s nice to have everyone here and standing with her and Justin as they get ready to do probably the biggest thing they will ever do in their entire lives.

“Tell us what you need.” Zeke says.

Justin's smile stretches across his face and he starts laying out the specifics of their plan.

Alex knows that the hardest part has just begun. But here, surrounded by her family and her best friend and Justin, she feels more than ready for it.

~

They celebrate Max’s 18th birthday they way they always do, with cake and Max’s favorite foods for dinner. It’s just their family, Harper, Zeke, and Max’s girlfriend Talia and they spend most of the evening talking and joking and generally ignoring that tomorrow is going to be one of the most important days of their lives even if they weren’t trying to overthrow the Wizard Council (part of this is because Talia doesn’t know Max is a wizard yet and part of it is because they all want one last night of memories without anything weighing them down).

After the party is over and everyone has gone home, Justin pulls Alex and Max into his room for what Alex assumes is one last pep talk. “Listen,” he tells them, “I know we’re taking a huge risk tomorrow. So if anything starts to go wrong, I want you two to act like the only thing you knew about was trying to make the competition a tie. Just pretend like the fact that I’m know I’m not a Russo and anything about the resistance, if it comes up, is a complete surprise to you. I’m hoping it will help keep you guys out of trouble.”

“What?” Alex shakes her head forcefully. “No!”

“Yeah, no way man.” Max shakes his head as well. “We’re in this together.”

“Guys,” Justin gaze turns pleading, “come on-”

“No.” Alex replies firmly. “I’m not letting you do this on your own and I’m sure as hell not going to let you go down for this on your own!”

“Me neither.” Max agrees. “Look, I may not love you like Alex does, but you’re still my brother so if we’re going down, we’re going down together.”

Alex and Justin both turn to blink at him in shock.

“What?”

“You...you know about that?”

“Really?” Max raises an eyebrow. “You guys have always been different with each other than you were with me. And then it turns out there’s an alternate version of you guys who are dating...it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.” They just continue to blink at him in silence and he grins. “Also, I may have noticed you guys holding hands on the balcony last night.”

“Ah.” Alex nods. “That makes way more sense.”

“You’re...” Justin shifts nervously and grabs Alex’s hand, intertwining their fingers, “You’re okay with it?”

Max shrugs. “Sure. I mean it would be kinda weird if you were really brother and sister, but you’re not. The way I see it, in one timeline you started out dating and then you probably got married, which would technically make you my brother anyways. We just did it backwards in this one.”

“We,” Justin’s voice goes a little squeaky and Alex stifles her giggle as he clears his throat. “We aren’t married though, Max.”

Her little brother just shrugs again as he shoots a smirk in their direction. “Well yeah, not yet.”

Alex lets out a startled laugh and lets go of Justin’s hand so she can reach over and give Max a hug. “You are the best brother ever!”

Max rolls his eyes. “Duh. I’m your _only_ brother.”

They all burst into laughter at that, and Justin pulls Max into a quick hug of his own.

“Okay,” He tells them. “We’ll do this together.”

Alex and Max share a smile as they nod in agreement. “Together.”

~

“There you are!” Alex waves to Justin as he rounds the corner and comes into view. “Have you seen Max?”

Justin nods as he joins her at the entrance to the Tunnel of Mist –the last part of the Wizard Competition. “Yeah, he’s right behind me. After you figured out to use the _go through, mow through_ spell, I know you said it loud enough so we could both hear you, but I think Max was too far behind. So I ‘got stuck’ long enough for him to catch up and then I loudly figured it out too.”

“Guys!” Max rounds the corner a second after Justin finishes talking. “Ready?”

Alex grins. “Let’s do this!”

They enter the Tunnel of Mist and are immediately greeted by several lasers blocking their path. Alex’s grins widens as she turns to Justin and he’s smiling back at her, his wand already out.

“ _Threemetrus Move-ee-trus_.” They say together and in a flash they’re both on the other side of the lasers.

“Man,” Max shakes his head, pulling out his wand, “You guys have got to stop doing that. _Threemetrus Move-ee-trus_.” He joins them on the other side of the lasers. “It’s creepy.”

Alex and Justin both laugh good naturedly at him as they all make their way down the tunnel. It’s empty of any other traps besides the lasers and it only takes them a few minutes to reach the end, the doorway covered in swirling mist looming before them.

“Well,” Justin turns to face them. “This is it. Got your lucky pin?” This last part he directs at Max who nods.

“Of course,” Max pats the T-Rex pin that’s pinned up by his collar bone and grins at them, “never go anywhere without it.”

They all laugh and Justin offers his arm to Alex who takes it and she offers her other arm to Max. Once they’re all linked, Justin nods. “Okay then, on the count of three.”

“One.” Alex smiles, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.

“Two.” Max grins.

“Three!” Justin finishes and together they all step forward.

The mist completely blocks Alex’s vision for a second, so she hears Chancellor Rootietootietootie before she sees him.

“And the winner of the Russo family competition is...” He trails off and Alex smirks. “All three of them?”

“What is the meaning of this?” Professor Crumbs walks over to them, frowning.

Alex shrugs. “Looks like we ended up crossing the finish line at the same time.”

“We’ve been thinking about it and we decided that none of us wanted to give up our powers.” Max reaches over to high five both Alex and Justin. “So we decide to all win the competition.”

“That’s not possible!” He tells them angrily. “The rules clearly state that every wizard must try their best! If one of you wasn’t trying your best then we would have been notified immediately.”

“That’s true.” Justin concedes and he’s got that same smug tone that he always used when he was lecturing Alex. It’s much more enjoyable to watch him use it on someone else though. “But we were trying out best. We just tried our best to make sure it ended as a tie.”

Professor Crumbs is so angry he’s actually turning purple. “That is preposterous! There is no way this will be allowed. The Wizard Council won’t stand for it!”

“What are they going to do about it?” Alex asks casually. “We’ve taken our Wizard Competition. They can’t make us take it again without us just making sure we tie again.”

“That’s true.” A female voices cuts in. “But we can take your powers.”

Professor Crumbs turns and they all notice the three members of the Wizard Council standing behind him. They all look upset, but the blonde wizard in the center looks especially stern and also kind of like she’s constantly smelling something unpleasant. “If you don’t follow the rules, like all the other wizard families, we will be forced to take the Russo family magic from you. Forever.”

“That means,” The dark skinned wizard on her right elaborates, “that no future generation of Russo children will have powers either.”

“Think carefully.” The last council member adds. “This isn’t just about the three of you.”

“Oh no,” Alex dismisses their warnings with a wave of her hand. “We’ve already talked about it. And we decided that if it came to this, you could take the Russo family magic.”

The members of the Wizard Council, Professor Crumbs, and Chancellor Rootietootietootie all looked surprised at Alex’s response. “You’re okay with them taking your powers? Chancellor Rootietootietootie asks, sounding understandably shocked.

Alex and Max both shrug. “Sure. Max and I will be fine with or without magic.”

“You realize,” Professor Crumbs turns to Justin, “that this means you’d have to give up your powers too, don’t you?”

Justin crosses his arms over his chest and shakes his head. “Actually, no. Alex and Max may have decided that they’re okay with giving up the _Russo_ family powers,” The color drains from the Council member’s face as they catch the emphasis Justin had placed on their last name. Professor Crumbs looks equally horrified and something sharp like pain flashes in Alex’s chest. She’d been hoping that Professor Crumbs hadn’t been in on any of this, because she had genuinely respected and liked him, “but...I think I’m going to keep mine.”

The blonde wizard’s nostrils flare in her anger and Alex realizes she’s still going to try and trick them. “You broke the Wizard Competition rules right along with them, I’m afraid. If their powers go, so do yours.”

“Yeah, see about that…I haven’t broken any rules. I’m not actually supposed to even _have_ a wizard competition. What with me being the only Delaney child and all.”

If there was still any way that the Council or Professor Crumbs thought they were going to get Justin to believe he had to give up his powers with them, it evaporates with that sentence.

“What is going on?” Chancellor Rootietootietootie sounds genuinely confused and Alex is glad for that. She likes Rootietootietootie just as much as she used to like Professor Crumbs.

“Oh?” Justin turns to face the Chancellor. “You mean you haven’t heard? Turns out, I’m actually Justin Delaney, not Justin Russo.” He holds out his hands and calls up his magic, letting everyone see that it isn’t the size of magic being shared with anyone. “And I don’t even need to have a Wizard Competition. So, no. I haven’t broken any rules and no one is touching my magic. And if their smart, the Wizard Council and Crumbs won’t touch Alex or Max’s either.”

“How dare you-”

“Actually,” Justin cuts off the blonde Council member again, and Alex tries her best to hide her gleeful smiles as he takes his wand out and begins twirling it between his fingers and starts to circle the four wizards in front of them casually. “Before we get to that, I’d like to ask the Council Members a few questions.”

He’s not actually talking to anyone in particular, but Chancellor Rootietootietootie still replies curiously, “Like what?”

“Oh, nothing major.” Justin shrugs and waves his hand dismissively. “Just little things: what’s their favorite color, how they sleep at night knowing they’re tearing families apart with an unnecessary competition and treating all other magical creatures like second hand citizens, why they thought taking me from my mortal guardians and casting a spell on everyone to make them believe I was the oldest Russo child would stop my prophecy from coming true.” He shrugs again. “Mundane stuff.”

“What!?” Chancellor Rootietootietootie sounds horrified now.

“Yeah,” Alex chimes in as Justin comes back to stand beside her once more. “The Wizard Competition is completely unnecessary. They’ve just been using it for years to keep wizard families attentions focused inwards so no one would complain about how terrible their stupid rules were.”

“Or how poorly they’re treating vampires and werewolves and stuff.” Max adds.

“We have no idea what you’re talking about.” The Council member on the left sniffs indignantly.

“Really?” Justin draws out the word in a way that is usually obnoxious to Alex but right now it just makes her grin. “You had no idea that the Wizard Competition is completely unnecessary, made up after Harry Whodunit used the crystal that powers the transfer machine to steal his brother’s powers and decided he wanted to keep wizard families from asking too many questions about the power he claimed? No clue at all that I was born with a prophecy saying I was meant to change the rules. You’re telling me it was another group of wizards that took me from my mortal guardians and stuck me in the family of the girl I was supposed to fall in love with all just to avoid you guys losing your power and authority. Oh man.” Justin gives an over exaggerated impressed noise. “You guys must have some _really_ good friends.”

“Listen here,” The blonde wizard hisses, “I don’t know how you found any of that out, but I’d love to see you try and do anything about it.”

Alex smirks. “You mean like tell the entire Wizard World that you’ve been _lying to them for centuries_.”

The dark skinned Council Member scoffs. “And who’d believe you?”

“Well,” Justin considers, “I know these competitions are usually televised to the Wizard World. And I’m betting that with all the excitement no one’s thought to stop it. But even if you have, that’s okay. Max’s lucky pin is actually a hidden camera and I’ve made a lot of talented friends, especially recently, and they’re _also_ broadcasting this to everyone. So, you know, that’s going to go a long way to help make sure people do believe us.”

She can tell by the look on everyone’s faces (including Chancellor Rootietootietootie) that no one thought to shut off the broadcasting of their Wizard Competition. Which means they’re reaching twice as many people in the Wizard World and they’re definitely getting the attention of anyone who might be consider a higher up.

The lights in the room flicker and while the Council Members, Professor Crumbs, and Chancellor Rootietootietootie look around in confusion, Alex catches sight of her father and mother giving them thumbs up from the spectator section. They’d been given a two way communication deceive that used Morse code to signal to the group in charge of getting rid of the transfer machine when it was safe to start their work and to tell them when they’d finished the job. Justin obviously sees it too, because he smirks. “And there goes the magic transfer machine. No more Wizard Competitions, I guess.”

“No more families torn apart.” Alex adds, glaring angrily at them.

And then, it’s just like Sarah said it would be. The Council and Professor Crumbs seem to realize that between the destroyed transfer machine and the knowledge that most (if not all) of the Wizard World knows their secrets that they've been backed into a corner and there really isn’t a way for them to win this. The fight leaves them so quickly that Alex almost gets whiplash from it.

“What do you want?” Professor Crumbs asks, sounding far more grumpy then Alex feels like he has a right to, considering all the crap they did to them before they were even old enough to go to school.

“I want you to step down. _All_ of you.” He says referring to Professor Crumbs and the Council. “I want you to step aside and let me start to fix the mess you’ve been making for centuries. I want you to give up your authority so that we can make a better system, a fairer and more balanced one for all the members of the magical community. And also,” He fixes his gaze on the blonde wizard, “I’d really like for you to stop looking like your two friends smell bed. That expression is very distracting.”

Alex let’s out sharp burst of laughter before quickly slapping a hand over her mouth. There’s silence for a few minutes after that while the blonde wizard looks a weird combination of angry and resigned and the other two wizards look offended. Finally, however, she sighs and nods.

“Fine.” She concedes, sounding less than thrilled with it, before giving Justin an extremely haughty look. “Good luck with your decision. I hope you know how terribly in over your head you are.”

Justin fixes her with a hard expression. “Well then,” he tells her, his voice cold as ice, “it’s a good thing I’m not doing this alone.”

And just like that...the revolution ends.

~

They’re almost busier now that the revolution is over than they were before. They and a few other resistance members had gone back to the house in Italy after the Wizard Competition, mostly wizards or former wizards who were trying to use the resistance’s resources to get in touch with their siblings. Justin is constantly transporting himself back and forth between the house and the Wizard World as he meets with so many different wizards that Alex doesn’t bother with trying to remember the names of them all.

A lot of what Justin is doing is going through the structure that made up the governing body for the Wizard World. The Council Members were obviously the highest authority, followed closely by Professor Crumbs, but there’s department heads and regular every day office workers and Justin and Sarah and Logan have to meet with all of them and put them through questioning and truth spells to figure out if anyone else knew about what was really going on (Justin had offered to let her join him, but now that everything is over she’s perfectly content to work on getting back into art school –she’s thinking something in fashion with a minor in art- and there’s several good schools in Italy for her to check out).

Luckily, it seems like everyone minus the three council members and Professor Crumbs had absolutely no idea what was going behind the scenes.

After that’s done, Justin and Sarah start sorting through all the Wizard Laws while Logan and Alex (she does get roped into helping with this) go through all the departments that the Wizard Council had established over the years and decide which departments need to stay (the Department for Magical Mishaps and Emergencies will definitely still be useful) and which will go (The Department of Wizard Family Competitions is the first one Alex crosses gleefully off the list).

Alex finds Justin on the porch one evening in the middle of all of this, nursing a glass of their favorite white wine. It’s the first time she’s seen him out here since planning for everything really took off and she’s glad to see that he’s relaxing. He looks almost more tired than he did before the Wizard Competition and she knows for sure that he’s feeling more stress.

“Hey.” She says softly, moving to sit next to him on the bench.

“Hey.” He greets back, smiling softly at her.

He lifts his arm and she snuggles into his side, taking his glass of wine and stealing a quick sip before handing it back. He just keeps smiling. “I missed getting to do this.” She confesses. She knows what he’s doing is important, but she does miss being able to watch the sunset with him.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s been hectic.”

She shakes her head. “No, you don’t have to be sorry. All the stuff you’ve been doing is more important than watching the sunset with me every day. But I’ll be glad when it’s less busy.” A thought occurs to her. “It is going to get less busy right?”

Justin lets out a long breath. “Definitely. I know that prophecy said I was supposed to be the new leader, but honestly I have no interest in doing that long term. I’m glad I was able to be a part of all of this, that I was able to help start making things better, but I think long term I’m meant for something a little smaller. Being a doctor would be nice. Or teaching maybe. In the Wizard World or in the mortal one.”

Alex considers this for a minute. “You’d make a good teacher.” She says finally.

He nods. “Yeah, I think I would. But first we have to finish up with this. The last thing I want to do is set up another system that leaves itself open to being corrupted.”

Something about the tone of his voice tips her off. “You think you figured something out?”

Justin nods again, taking a sip of his wine. “I think so. I still think we need some kind of governing body, you know? The Wizard World needs rules and regulations just like the mortal one does. But I want a governing body that works in everyone’s favor, not just wizards. So I thought, a different Council. One that has one wizard, one former wizard –at least until there aren’t former wizards left,” and damn does Alex like the thought of that, that someday there won’t be anyone who has to say _I used to have magic_ , “and one of every other kind of magical creature. A couple of us from the resistance will appoint the first set of members. After that they’ll be chosen by a vote and they’ll meet once a year for a few weeks to look over how everything is going and see if any changes need to be made to the rules or the system. Or they can come together if something new comes up, any kind of unforeseen circumstance that would affect the magical community. That way everyone can have a voice and everyone’s concerns and interests are being heard.” Alex makes grabby hands at him so he hands her the wine glass before continuing. “They’ll get replaced every like one hundred years or so. I know that seems like a long time,” he adds at her raised eyebrow, “but think about how long people with magic live. The Wizard Council and Professor Crumbs are _hundreds_ of years. Even Sarah is like 100 and she looks like she’s maybe thirty. I want to impose that limit on all Department Heads too.”

Alex mulls this over while she drinks the wine. “Yeah, I guess that’s fair.”

“Also...” Justin trails off, looking out into the distance until Alex gently nudges him back to the moment. “Sorry,” He shakes his head, “I just don’t know how I feel about this but...well I was considering making it mandatory that before they convene every year, they have to take a truth potion. That way we can know that they’re still working for the people and not for themselves. But...I don’t know, does that seem too extreme?”

“Sometimes,” Alex says, her face dark and her voice rough, “I stop and think about all the families they tore apart with the Wizard Competition. Or all the wizards who had to give up their powers just because they fell in love with a mortal. Or literally everyone else who was ever treated like a second class citizen just because they weren’t wizards. And honestly, we need to make sure that something like that never happens again. So, no, I don’t think it’s too extreme. It’s a truth potion and a couple of questions. It won’t even take half an hour.”

Justin nods. “Yeah. I’ll run it by a few other people, just to get some other opinions on it, but I think you’re right.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.” Alex says to him happily.

“Oh man,” Justin laughs, “not by a long shot. But thanks. There’s still so much left to do. I mean, I do think magical creatures should be allowed to marry mortals, but I also think there should be some kind of, I don’t know, test or something to make sure that the mortal they want to expose magic to is trustworthy. I think that we can mix the mortal realm and the magic realm eventually, but we’ve got to be careful in how we do and we have to do it slowly. You know how people can be.”

Alex grins. “ _A person is smart._ ” She quotes and Justin grins along with her. “ _People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals_.”

“Exactly. We can definitely do it. We just have to make sure we do it the right way.” He sighs. “There’s other stuff too. As soon as we get all the laws and the departments sorted into what we want to keep and what we don’t want to keep, I want to create the new Council and let them decide for sure what stays and what goes. And I still need to figure out exactly what I want to do with the old Council and Professor Crumbs.”

Alex wrinkles her nose in confusion. “I thought we already took care of that.” The now ex-council members and ex-professor are back in their homes, left mostly alone but all under a spell that monitors them 24/7. It doesn’t completely intrude on their privacy, but they’ve got a strict list of things they can do and if they stray from that list Justin and Sarah both get notified about it. Almost like an ankle monitor. But more all knowing. The vindictive side of Alex _loves_ it.

Justin shakes his head. “That monitoring spell is meant to be used on rebellious teenagers who keep trying to sneak out or who are trying to use their magically dangerously. Or for children that are left home alone for the first time. Not for grown adults.”

“Well, yeah, but I think we can both agree that they’re worse than teenagers that try to sneak out to the cute guy’s party.”

“I won’t argue with you about that, but I don’t want to...” He makes a frustrated noise and Alex knows he’s having trouble searching for the words he needs. “What they did was wrong, I’m not denying that. But in the end they surrendered. They were snotty about it, but they gave up without too much trouble. It’s like-like...do you know any of the major contributing factors to World War II?”

Alex raises her eyebrow. “What do you think?”

He chuckles. “Fair enough. But really, one of the reasons that lead to World War II was that when the Allies won the First World War they basically split Germany up and took away its autonomy. They left the German citizens impoverished and not in control of their own lives and country. And it left them angry and resentful and looking for a scapegoat, which gave Hitler the perfect opportunity to walk in and take advantage of that. I mean, that is grossly over simplifying it and you should really look into more because it’s honestly fascinating, but the point is that I don’t want to treat them like how they treated everyone else and give them cause to try and fight back. I’m sure they could find plenty of reasons just because I kicked them out of their positions of power.”

“Yeah,” Alex doesn’t really like it, but she sees Justin’s point. “So what are you thinking of doing.”

“Honestly, I’m thinking I just want to put that dampening spell that was on my magic onto theirs and forbid them from every holding any kind of position of power in the new system. It’ll keep them from being powerful enough to try anything too crazy if they do decide they want to try and take back their authority, but it will still leave them with enough power to do the normal day to day stuff.”

“That’s it?”

Justin nods. “You remember what is like when you gave the up being a full wizard after that competition on vacation. It’s not going to exactly be pleasant for them. And besides that, I think watching the new system start to take shape and the magical community flourish around them will be a kind of punishment in and of itself.”

“That’s true. And I guess we wouldn’t want to accidentally start a magical World War II.”

“I am really trying my best not to.”

Alex sighs, her mind going over all the information. There’s still so much to do. “How much longer do you think it’ll be before we can start looking for the new Council members?”

Justin shrugs. “Another month or so I’m guessing. There’s really not that much more left for us to go through, but before we start looking for at least one of the potential Council members there’s something I want to do first.”

“Like what?”

“Well, we destroyed the transfer machine so we can’t make anyone who’s already won their powers from their siblings give it back but, well, the spell I used to remove my magic and split it up is an old one and it’s tricky. A lot of wizards might not even know about it, or how to do it properly. Or that it’s okay for them to do it. So I want to make an announcement to every full wizard. To let them know that if they want to learn it so they can share their magic with their siblings again they can.” He shakes his head. “The thing is...the spell isn’t something you can cast on another wizard. They have to choose to do it themselves. That’s why the crystal in the transfer machine was such a big deal. It was one of the few ways –besides that weird tetherball court on top of the Tower of Evil- to take a wizard’s power against their will. But I,” he sighs, “I can’t make anyone do it. And I’m not really keen on making a law that says they have to. It sucks, but honestly, forcing a wizard to separate themselves from their magic without them really being willing too, well, it can be dangerous. And I hate that, for all the wizards who lost their magic, I really hate that I can’t do anything, but I’m out of ideas.”

“No, Justin,” Alex sits up straighter so she can take his face her hands and force him to look at her, “listen to me. You knocked over the old, awful system like it was one of those Lego™ things you used to build as a kid. And then you built a brand new, better system from the ground up without even those weirdly unhelpful instructions that your Legos™ came with. I know it sucks, but if wizards who have already lost their wizard competition are your only casualties, then I think it’s safe to say that you’re doing pretty damn well.”

He smiles at her in that way that makes his eyes soft and he moves her hands from his face so he can lean in and kiss her gently. “Thank you.” He breathes out when he pulls back a moment later. His smile widens. “Speaking of...guess who agreed to be first wizard to give his siblings back their magic? Agreed to do it broadcasted across the Wizard World after I make the announcement to show how the process works.”

“Who?”

“Uncle Kelbo.”

Alex’s can feel her eyes widen. “You’re kidding!” Justin shakes his head, smiling gleefully. “That’s amazing! Does Dad know?”

“Not yet.” He tells her. “Want to tell him together?”

And Alex knows that everything else they’ve done has probably been a bigger victory than Uncle Kelbo agreeing to share the family magic again, but Alex’s heart is soaring and she doesn’t care how all of the wins they’ve had over the past month and a half stack up when compared against each other.

To her, this almost feels like the biggest victory of all.

~

The look on her father’s face when Kelbo hands him his portion of their magic almost makes Alex want to cry. He’s wearing the same expression that Justin was when they gave him his magic back after her graduation. Only Justin was without his magic for eight months and her father’s been without his magic for over twenty years.

Her Aunt Megan looks pretty emotional too, but Alex remembers the angry, bitter woman who wouldn’t help her family when they needed her the most and even though it probably isn’t fair, Alex can’t find it in her to be particularly happy for her. Max is rolling his eyes as she sniffles and thanks Kelbo, so she knows she isn’t alone in that thought. She’s not sure what Justin’s feeling because he’s over with the other adults, talking through the process into the camera that’s broadcasting this to everyone in the Magical Community (the jury is still out on that as the new name, but everyone has decided it needs to stop being called the Wizard World when it clearly belongs to so many other kinds of magical people besides wizards). He’s got his camera face on, the one he practiced in the mirror and in front of Alex for weeks before their Wizard Competition. He used to have a terrible poker face, but now it’s almost impossible for Alex to tell what he’s really thinking. It’s pretty impressive considering the boy she grew up with couldn’t lie about anything to save his life.

It all goes off without a hitch because Justin is an excellent teacher and an even better planner and the first thing her dad does with his magic is conjure up a rose for her mom and even though Alex knows her mom isn’t always the biggest fan of magic (or at least of living with three –well, okay mostly two- kids who don’t have the best grasp of it yet), the look on her face when he hands her the rose is one of support and happiness and love and Alex is fiercely happy for them.

Aunt Megan flashes out almost as soon as the cameras stop recording, but she does promise to meet up with her dad and Kelbo for dinner next week, so maybe things are at least a little better. Even though nothing that happened to them was anyone’s fault, Alex knows her Aunt Megan’s resentment and anger runs deep, so she isn’t surprised that it will take some time to heal what happened between them. And she was a good sport when they cameras were on, giving both her dad and Kelbo a quick (and kind of uncomfortable, but baby steps) hug after the transfer of the magic had been complete. And she and Kelbo had also performed some basic magic before the cameras cut off so that everyone who’s watching can see that the spell Justin taught Kelbo is legit, that the magic can be split up and shared again.

Alex knows the demonstration still won’t guarantee that every full wizard will take it upon themselves to share their magic again, but the fact that this all happened so smoothly must have swayed at least some of the wizards who might have been on the fence about it. Which, honestly, is all they can ask for at this point.

And already the magical sign-up sheet for the classes that Justin had mentioned as he was explaining everything are already filling up with names and Alex wonders how many other wizards have spent their lives hating the system even if they benefited from it.

~

The new Council has its first official meeting almost six months after the old one stepped down. It’s comprised of fifteen different members (Justin among them as the representative for the wizards), all of who happily consented to taking a truth potion and answering some questions. The meeting takes place over several days, but by the time they’re done they’ve managed to agree almost unanimously on all the changed laws and departments.

They all know it won’t always go this smoothly. As times change and people settle into their new lives, new problems will arise that they will have meet and deliberate on and probably even argue over what to do to make sure things stay fair for everyone. But for right now, everyone is still in the honeymoon phase and they’re all more than agreeable.

Now that everything is over, the members of the resistance have all returned back to their families and their normal lives. There isn’t a need for the secret headquarters anymore, which is why the day after the last Council session ends, Alex finds herself, Justin, Logan, and Sarah standing in front of the bookcase that hides its entrance as Justin performs the spell to turn into back into a regular old bookcase.

“What’ll happen to the headquarters?” Sarah asks as Justin finishes the spell and the bookcase glows brightly for a few moments before returning to normal.

“It’s still there,” Logan tells her as he picks up a book and gives a small smile when the bookcase remains a bookcase, “just we can’t access it anymore.”

“No one can.” Justin adds, putting his wand back in his pocket. “No matter who else lives here, or if the bookcase gets removed, there won’t be anything but a blank wall behind it.”

“It’s kind of sad,” Alex reaches for Justin’s hand, “I mean I’m glad we don’t need to have a secret resistance headquarters anymore, but I’m kind of going to miss it. I had some surprisingly good times here. You know,” She shrugs, “considering we were trying to plan to overthrow the wizard government.”

Sarah laughs. “That’s true. But now think of all the good times you can look forward to having knowing you’ll be able to always keep your powers.”

“Just promise not to fill the house with water so you can ride a shark like a horse.” At Logan’s look, Justin elaborates. “Max has already tried it twice.”

Logan laughs. “Man, you are going to be busy keeping these two out of trouble.”

“Story of my life.” Justin says solemnly, although he laughs when Alex nudges him. “But honestly, it’s my favorite story. Probably wouldn’t change it even if I could.”

“I’ll definitely miss you guys.” Sarah tells them, even as she’s pulling out her wand (giving up her full wizard powers means she has to use her wand to transport places, but they all agree it’s barely even a price to pay for what they got in return). “We’ll have to make sure we all still meet up once in a while.”

“Yeah,” Logan agrees, pulling out his wand as well, “I mean we can’t stop having our ‘jam sessions’ after all.”

The two older wizards disappear in a flash of light and laughter, leaving Justin and Alex alone. “Now what?” Alex asks.

Justin shrugs and squeezes her hand. “Now I guess we finally get to relax. At least for a little while.” He blushes suddenly and Alex can’t believe she never realized how adorable he looks before all of this. “And I guess we go back to our normal lives.”

“Oh.” Alex’s face falls at the thought of what normal might mean. She remembers nights spent on the porch and the slow realization that she actually loved this place. And the even slower realization that what she loved most about it was that Justin was there. “Even though we’re not normal?”

“Well,” Justin chuckles and they move into the living room. “Normal for us. But I, uh, I was thinking now that everything is over, well, Wiz-Tech offered me a job as professor there and I think I’d really like to take them up on it.”

“That’s great.” Alex tries to be enthusiastic about this news, because she knows that Justin really would love to be able to teach younger wizards about all the things magic has to offer them. But the professors at Wiz Tech live there and Alex isn’t sure if she’s ready to leave the moral world yet.

The look that Justin gives her says that he can see right through her and he sits onto the couch, tugging her arm gently until she climbs into his lap, straddling his hips. “Professor Crumbs had to live at Wiz-Tech because he ran it. Regular professors can just flash in at the start of the day. And well,” his expression turns bashful, “I really like Italy and all the memories we have here,” His arms slip around her waist and squeeze her briefly and she smiles. “And I was hoping, maybe, you might want to stay here with me.”

“Are you kidding,” she says excitedly, “I’d love that. I love this place.”

She doesn’t say _I love you_. She doesn’t say _Italy brought us together._ She doesn’t say _this is where I learned about everything I never realized you were to me._ She doesn’t need to. Justin has always known her better than anyone else and he knows all the things that sit unspoken in her heart. Someday she’ll tell him all of this out loud, but for now it just settles comfortably in the hum of her magic just beneath her skin.

Justin’s smile widens at her response. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”

He leans forward to kiss her and Alex sighs happily, moving her arms to wrap around his neck and lets herself sink into the kiss. She thinks briefly about the hum of magic beneath her skin and how, if she let it, it would spark to the surface, a physical representation of her connection with this boy beneath her.

This boy who, in another time, changed the rules of the world as they knew it just so he could keep her.

The resistance and the revolution were about so much more than their relationship, Alex knows that. But she can’t help but think about what Max said to them, about how maybe they did it backwards, but either way they were always meant to do it. And about what Sarah said, almost a year ago, as she sat them down and told them everything, about the inevitability of prophecies. She thinks about the things she’s learned, the friends she’s made, the love she’s found and realizes that Max and Sarah were right. Even if it was different, it was always going to happen.

She lets herself have one last thought before she loses herself in the sensation of Justin surrounding her and the happy thrum of her magic at the closeness. She knows exactly what song she wants him to learn to play for the next time everyone has the chance to meet up.

And she can’t wait for them to sing it together.

~

_Like a river flows to the sea. So it goes...some things are meant to be. (Some things are meant to be.)_

* * *

_The End_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Translations:**  
>  Buon Natale, patatinos: Merry Christmas, little potatoes (according to the internet, "little potatoes" is an affectionate nickname used mostly for small children or grandchildren and never in my life have I wanted something I read on the internet to be truer)  
> tesoro: treasure
> 
> And that is the end. This took me two decades to write (I have been sitting on that dad joke for a like two weeks, you guys), but it was so worth it. I am terrible at action scenes and I've never actually lead a resistance so apologies to anyone who wanted a more action-y take down of the Wizard Council.
> 
> And sorry that I had to make Professor Crumbs a bad guy. Actually, no, you know what, I am not sorry about that at all. It irritated the crap out of me that he staged that whole government exposing wizards conspiracy thing just to try and trap them. It made me lose any kind of fondness that I had for his character (which, honestly, we hardly see much of him up to that point so it's not exactly like I had a ton of fondness for him to begin with). So, yeah, he had to go down too. 
> 
> This thing spiraled so far out of my control, but it was a labor of love to a show that I genuinely enjoyed from the bottom of my heart. Do I have to some questions about it? Yeah. Do I think some of the characters got turned into overly exaggerated, cartoon-y versions of who they were when the show first started? Oooh boy do I. Do I think this show could have gone in some more interesting directions then what it ended up doing? Well, you guys have an almost 35K word answer to that question. But did this show make me smile despite the flaws? Just about all the time. 
> 
> So here is my love letter to this show and to its characters. To all the wonderful things it was and all the wonderful things it could have been. Thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it made you smile.
> 
> And Disney? As much as I love Selena Gomez and David Henrie, you have got to be more careful with who you cast as siblings. I'm not sure what kind of sibling chemistry you were going for with those two, but whooboy did you guys miss that mark by a mile.
> 
> I still love you though.

**Author's Note:**

> So that's the end of part one. I have part two completely written up, I just need to take a few days break from this so I come back and proofread it with fresh eyes. It'll almost definitely be up next weekend, maybe even before that. 
> 
> I think over the course of my 8+ years liking this show, I've read a couple fics where there's some kind of revolution that gets rid of the wizard competition and sometimes even the wizard council and honestly, rewatching the show as an adult, I'm almost surprised something like didn't happen (or the kid friendly version of something like that). There was just this insane amount of emphasis on both the wizard competition (and the family rivalry it created and the way it tore families apart) and this idea that family is the most important thing, that they should always stick together no matter what, that they all work best as a team vs just one of them. I'm kind of surprised me that it didn't end up with the three of them coming together and being like "screw this. We're all wizards and we're all sticking together and if you don't like it you can go shove a wand up your butt" or you know, something like that. 
> 
> **Translations:**  
>  mijo - son
> 
> Thanks for reading! Part two will but soon!


End file.
